Shadows of the Heart
by Nanya
Summary: The end of one life does not mean that the world stops moving, as Nepgear finds out. Life must go on, but when burdened by the past, can one truly find peace?
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

So I was reading "Changes" and "Change the World" by Charlotte Eraviel and I really liked the set up that the first fic and the first couple chapters has. The rest of the fic is worth reading as well. But, anyway, I wanted to use that set up for a fic of my own and I went in a totally different direction from Change the World. However, I did get permission from Charlotte Eraviel to use the set-up for my fic, so thanks for that!

I'll post the Prologue and Chapter 1 today and then I'll post one chapter a week.

* * *

"Onee-chan..." Nepgear, a lanky girl with long pink hair who wore a white sailor outfit, sniffled as she saw her sister in HDD form, about to head off to Celestia once more. "Please don't go." She fidgeted with the hem of her white and pink sailor outfit.

Purple Heart sighed and walked over to Nepgear, hugging her to her chest. "I already told you, I have to go. It would not be a good look for Planeptune if I refused to show up when the other CPUs show up to fight."

"But..." Nepgear hugged her sister tightly. "I don't want you to go." She jumped when lightning flashed outside, causing Purple Heart to sigh as she looked outside.

"Rain, huh?" She shook her head. "I promise you, Nepgear, I'll return." She leaned in and gave her sister a kiss on the forehead. "I'll try not to be too injured this time as well." She gave her sister a small grin. Seeing as Nepgear continued to look troubled, she sighed. "Nepgear, I don't want to fight them either, but sometimes, as a CPU, as a Goddess, you need to harden your heart and do stuff you don't want to do, even if it's painful to you or to others."

Nepgear nodded, feeling dread in her chest as her sister stepped away and walked to the device that would take her to Celestia once more. Her sister in her black and purple outfit, long purple hair done up in two braids and blue eyes looked back at her smiling. "Don't worry, Nepgear, your sister is the strongest and won't lose to anyone."

"Good luck, I believe in you."

With a flash, her sister was gone and Nepgear felt her world get colder for some reason. "Please be safe."

As the hours dragged on with no word from Celestia, Nepgear's dread started to grow. When the rain started to come down in buckets, her dread only worsened. When three lightning bolts slammed into the top of the Basilicom at the same time, Nepgear found herself on her hands and knees and on the floor, tears falling out of her eyes. "N...No..." She didn't know why, but she knew. She just knew...

Her sister was no longer among the living.

* * *

I know, very short prologue. Why do you think I'm posting chapter 1 as well today?

For those wondering about Dance With the Devil, don't worry, I'm still working on that, I just had to get this out of my system.


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

Sorry about the super short prologue, so to make up for it, here's a normal length chapter.

* * *

Nepgear groaned as she woke up from her nap and grimaced at how stiff she was from sleeping at her desk. "Ngh, been working too much lately." Shaking her head, she sighed heavily. "Has it been ten years already?" She ran her hands through her hair, now held in a single long braided ponytail to keep it from getting caught in doors by accident. Her outfit had changed over the years as she had given up wearing white and took to wearing a black sailor dress with leggings that covered her lower body completely.

The last time she saw her sister, the last time anyone had seen her sister, was ten years ago. Well, it wasn't completely accurate, she had seen her sister one time after she left, when she had gotten a video message sent to her, telling her that she loved her, telling Nepgear that she was sorry and telling Nepgear to become the best CPU she could.

"Nepgear," a familiar voice spoke up, "are you okay?" Looking up as Histoire floated into the room, Nepgear gave her a neutral look and nodded. "I was checking on you since you've been working extra hard lately."

"It's fine, Histoire." Nepgear stood up and stretched. "I guess I'm just a little exhausted from doing so much paperwork. I think I'll go do quests early today."

Histoire nodded and sighed as Nepgear walked past her. "Nepgear, you know that you can take a day off if you want to."

"A CPU must always make sure to do what's needed for their citizens, no matter what." Nepgear gave Histoire another blank look. "Is that not what you taught me?"

"Yes, but I..."

"Then it's fine. Work never ends anyway."

After Nepgear left, Histoire sighed and hung her head. "Nepgear, I'm so... So sorry."

She knew it was her fault that Nepgear had turned into what she had. She knew it was her fault that things had ended up the way they were.

"I didn't have a choice. I did what I had to do." Those words rang hollow to her, even now. "If only I had noticed what I was doing to you sooner, Nepgear. If only I had... Taken the time to get to know you... Or let you grieve."

Sighing, Histoire wondered if there was any way to mend the damage that she had done to Nepgear all those years ago.

(-)

As she walked towards the guild, Nepgear noticed the citizens of the city stop, wave and smile at her. Waving back, the most she did was nod at them. In the ten years since she had taken over as the CPU, Planeptune had grown tremendously, far out-pacing the other three nations in every aspect possible.

Yet Nepgear never truly felt like this was her nation. It should have been her sister's nation, not hers. Sure, she knew she was to take over when her sister ended up passing on or stepped down, but that didn't make it any easier on her.

'No point complaining about it.' Nepgear sighed. She knew that Histoire had only done what she did, pushing her to be the best CPU she could be, because Planeptune had been in a real bad position back then. It didn't make it any easier.

Walking into the guild, she walked up to the desk and nodded at the guild clerk, who nodded back at her and pulled out a book. "You're here early, Lady Nepgear."

"I decided to change things up, that's all." Taking the book, she looked through it and mentally sighed at the lack of quests that would need a CPU's attention. "Not a lot here, huh?"

"Just think of it as a sign that our CPU is such a good worker."

Nepgear nodded and selected a few quests that would take her out of town for a few hours. "Thank you for your hard work." She turned and left the guild.

After she left, several guild members and staff all let out a breath as they sighed heavily. "Seriously, how do you..." One of the staff members looked at the clerk who gave Nepgear the quest book.

"That's all I've known her as." The clerk shrugged. "I don't know if she was different in the past or not, but if that's how she is, that's how she is." Sure, the CPU's eyes were cold and she never showed emotion, but she also wasn't one to hold back on praise and thanks when she felt it was appropriate.

Most people agreed that Nepgear was a very kind and lovely person. After all, despite how her eyes were or the lack of outward emotion, she always made sure to do the best for the citizens.

They just wished that her eyes would show that or that she would show emotion. It was a little bit intimidating.

(-)

Back at the Basilicom...

"Hey, sis, do you..." A young girl's voice was heard as the door to Nepgear's office opened up. "Huh? Sis isn't here?" The girl was rather short, looking to be only twelve to fourteen physically. She had short, spiky light purple hair and her light purple eyes looked around in confusion. "That's odd, did she have to go to the bathroom?" She was wearing clothes that wouldn't be out of place for someone on a basketball team as she had a large white t-shirt with red stripes that covered her from her neck down half-way past her thighs. She had sneakers on her feet that were white with red and black stripes as well as wrist bands that had a stylized "N" on them.

"Ah, Jupiter..." Histoire noticed the current CPU Candidate as she went down the hallway. "Were you looking for Nepgear?"

"Yeah, but sis isn't here, she didn't..." The candidate trailed off, getting a shake from Histoire.

"She didn't leave you alone, she just went out to do some quests early today."

"Oh." Jupiter fought the urge to sigh and looked at the paperwork on Nepgear's desk. "I could do some of that for sis, you think she'd be happy?"

"At the very least she won't be disappointed." Histoire nodded at her. "Just don't work too hard."

Jupiter nodded and grabbed some of the papers and started to look them over. Her sister, even when she left most of it behind, was good enough that there wasn't too much to do. Still, there was enough paperwork here to keep her busy until after lunch. 'Maybe sis will want to play some games when she gets back?' She couldn't remember the last time she had spent time with her sister doing something like that.

Seeing Jupiter get to work on the paperwork left Histoire mentally sighing. Yes, she was glad that the CPU Candidate was willing to work, but deep down she wished that Nepgear would relax and spend time with Jupiter and have fun.

'If only I hadn't been sealed away, I might have been able to stop all of this.' She knew it wasn't completely her fault, she couldn't help being sealed away.

That didn't make things easier on her.

(-)

As she got close to the border of Planeptune and Lastation, Nepgear grimaced as she stepped over a rock. 'Why did I agree to gather materials again?' Looking at the list in her hand, she saw what was being asked and nodded. They were rare items and the monsters in the area were very strong.

At least for the average citizen and most guild workers. For Nepgear, they weren't too terribly powerful. 'This place really is beautiful, isn't it?' She looked at the mountainous area and closed her eyes. The image of when she was younger, and her older sister, popped into her head. The first time she had gotten to leave the Basilicom with her sister, the two had snuck out to an area like this and had a picnic together.

Or had tried to as a bunch of Dogoos had shown up and ruined the whole thing shortly after they had taken the time to eat together.

Nepgear shook her head and tried to shove her emotions down. 'She's gone, Nepgear, stop thinking about the past already.' There was nothing she could do about it. The whole Console War had taken so much from so many. 'At least those three murderers haven't done anything since Neptune died.'

She didn't know why, but she knew that the three had entered into a treaty of sorts with each other. The three called it a peace treaty and had even publically announced they would suspend hostilities with each other and Planeptune.

Nepgear wasn't a fool, she neither liked nor trusted the other nations nor their CPUs. After all, her sister had tried to be friends with them, had told her that she wanted to end the war peacefully. And all that got her was dead.

At the very least, if the other CPUs were willing to forego being aggressive on her nation, she would return the favor. Even if she wanted nothing more than to see the three dead at her feet some days, stoking the flames of war and facing off against three nations was just not smart.

So long as they kept to their nations, she would do the same.

When a loud bang went off not far from her position, she was shaken out of her thoughts and mentally cursed before ducking behind a rock and waited. 'I know that I'm near Lastation's border, is there a sniper nearby?' She rarely came this close to the border, so the other CPUs hiring an assassin to wait for her didn't seem reasonable.

'I'm going to have to double-check my information when I get back, make sure that there's no unseen movements.'

Another shot went off and Nepgear waited for a moment before sighing as she realized it wasn't aimed at her when she didn't hear any bullets hitting the rocks or ground around her. Igniting her beam saber, she slowly made her way towards the shots she had heard.

"Be careful!" A young girl's voice was heard. "To the right!"

"R-right!" Another young girl's voice was heard as the sounds of battle raged on.

Taking a risk, Nepgear popped her head over the ridge and looked down into the small valley. She had expected to see an army, or at least a dozen people fighting.

What she saw was simply three girls, two of them looked like twins, though one had long hair and their outfits were matching gray dresses with staves in their hands, each one casting various magic attacks, and the other one had black hair done up in twin half-pigtails, looked a few years older, had a black dress on, a rifle in her arms, which was the sound of the firing that she had heard before.

Idly Nepgear wondered if they were from the other nations, after all, this was pretty close to the border and it wouldn't surprise her if they had been trying to sneak in and gather information. Who would suspect three young girls as spies after all?

Still, seeing them fight the large group of horsebirds and tulips, she wondered if she should help them. Sighing as she imagined her dead sister giving her a disappointed look, she got up and slid down into the valley.

Uni, the girl with black hair, grimaced as a tulip monster got too close and headbutted her again. "Guh!"

"Look out!" One of the twins, Rom, yelled as she blasted the creature with an ice spell.

"Dang it!" The other twin, Ram, yelled in frustration as she cast an explosion spell. "We should have tried to get a front-line fighter to join us on this quest!"

Not too far away, her twin nodded. "Uh huh." Rom had a determined look on her face. "But we don't."

"ROM!" Ram suddenly screamed as a horsebird flew, fluttered, ran, no one was really sure how to describe how those things moved, over to her sister and was coming down.

Uni let out a curse and was about to activate her HDD to wipe out all these monsters when the horsebird suddenly let out a pained scream and disappeared in a mess of pixels and light. "What the?" She gawked as a girl with long pink hair, two d-clips, one black and one white, were in her hair, she was wearing a black sailor dress and had leggings that covered her very long legs. Her eyes, however, made Uni pause.

They didn't show any emotion at all.

"Would you three care for some assistance?" The newcomer asked.

"If you can fight, please help." Uni called to her as she shot another horsebird. There were a bunch of tulips gathering together and before she could even react to them, a wave of energy shot through them, defeating all of them.

"That won't be a problem then."

"Wow, so cool!" Rom gasped in delight. "Ram, did you see?"

"Yeah, but we have to..." Another wave went past Ram, slicing through a few horsebirds that had been trying to sneak up on her from behind.

"Thanks for the assist." Uni said to the newcomer as she finished charging her attack up. "Now... Ex Multi Blaster!" A black beam of energy rushed out and mowed down the last of the monsters in the area.

The three all sighed and fell to their butts in relief.

"Not bad." The newcomer said as she looked at them. "What brought you three out this far?"

"We were taking a quest on to do some monster hunting." Uni said, blushing softly. "But the monsters escaped and we chased them out here and..."

"The big meanies called in high level friends!" The long haired twin pouted.

"I see. Yes, that would happen right here, wouldn't it?" The pink-haired girl looked up at the mountains. "I think there was a den of some really high powered monsters in this area awhile ago." She looked back at them. "You three were lucky they were just horsebirds and tulips, I've heard there were some really strong Shampuru and Kupokitties in this area." Not to mention some of the other creatures, such as the rumor of some high-tier super bosses that hid out in the caves in the area. 'That reminds me, I'm going to need to have some scouts check out the caves near the border and make sure that there isn't anything like VIRUS or Delphinus in the area.' The last thing she wanted was one of those two running around unchecked.

"If that was the case, we'd be okay!" Ram boasted at her.

The newcomer raised an eyebrow. "I see. Oh, where are my manners? My name is Nepgear."

"I'm Uni." The dark haired girl bowed her head to Nepgear. "This is Rom," she gestured towards the short haired brunette, "and this is Ram."

"Hello, Miss Nepgear."

"Uni... Rom... Ram..." Nepgear said each name slowly before softly sighing. 'To think that the CPU Candidates of Lowee and Lastation were here. I'm going to have a headache and I don't want to deal with this.' Unlike what she had done with Jupiter, both White and Black Heart had publically announced their sisters to the world. Nepgear had kept Jupiter a closely guarded secret that only Histoire and a few other members of the Basilicom knew about.

Partially it was because she didn't think that Jupiter was ready for the exposure of being announced publically, and partially because she didn't want her enemies, especially the other CPUs, to attack her by killing her sister off.

Again.

Part of her wanted to kill these three, to have White and Black Heart know what it was like to feel the pain of losing their sister. 'That won't work, would it?' It wouldn't bring her sister back, it would only cause problems with the other nations and frankly Nepgear didn't want to deal with them any longer than she had to. "I see... I'd ask why you three are in Planeptune, but it seems like you didn't come here intentionally."

"Eh?!" The three yelped in shock, their eyes white and blank.

"We're in Planeptune?" Uni asked, getting a nod from Nepgear. "Well, we didn't..."

"I know." Nepgear resisted the urge to rub her forehead in annoyance. "If you three turn around and leave right now, I won't have you three arrested for attempted invasion."

"Huh?" Uni blinked in surprise. "But that's a bit extreme, isn't it?"

"Not at all. Planeptune and the other nations do not have cordial relations." Nepgear countered. It was pretty well-known that the CPU of Planeptune hadn't entered into the treaty with the other nations and was fairly isolated from the rest of the world as well. "However, it looks like you three didn't come here intentionally." Sighing as they nodded. "I'll escort you three to the border. That way no one will ask questions if they see you."

The group started to march to the border and Nepgear had her hand on her beam saber, which was still ignited, much to the three CPU Candidates chagrin.

"You know, it won't take us long to get the border." Uni said as they walked down the slope. "I get it, you're a good Planeptune citizen and all that and you're concerned about us, but we'll get home and..."

"All things considered, you three should be thankful that I'm not arresting the three of you, locking you up, interrogating you and then demanding reparations from your nations to return you." Nepgear said curtly, sighing as the three spun and glared at her. "I don't want to deal with the hassle that would come from dealing with such a situation, that's all."

"Oh yeah?!" Ram glared at her and pointed. "And who are you to say stuff like that, you big meanie? My sister's the CPU of Lowee so maybe you should..."

A flash of light and numbers surrounded Nepgear and the three gulped as the light cleared away to reveal Nepgear in a skin-tight light black outfit with pink and purple lines on the sides, four white wings on her back, though the edges were tinged with red, her legs and arms were covered in black and purple gauntlets and a gunblade was held in her right hand. "CPU Lilac Heart." Her voice was unchanged and her purple eyes had changed to blue and there was a power symbol in them, showing that she was a true CPU, however, like her normal form, those eyes showed no emotion. "Now, I'm asking you kindly, to please leave my country and not come back."

"Wait a moment!" Uni yelled, causing Lilac Heart to raise an eyebrow at her. "If you're the CPU of Planeptune... Why don't you join the other nations in the treaty? I mean, it's been ten years since the war ended, so why are you..." She trailed off as she saw Lilac Heart show actual emotion for the first time since she met her.

However, the hardening of her eyes didn't make Uni feel good.

"I would suggest that you three leave now, one more word out of any of you and I will resort to force."

When the three scrambled off, Lilac Heart watched them run over the border before sighing, turning and flying off. 'I hate this day.' She still had some items to find still!

* * *

So, the truth is, I wrote this on a whim, I was talking to a friend of mine and I started writing small snippets out before I realized that I wanted to write the whole fic out. So if some parts seem to copy what I've said before, that's why. I had to write the rest of the fic around the snippets I wrote previously.

As for Jupiter, I blame megaswifter for his awesome fic "Omegadimension Neptunia: The Next Generation". I'm only using the name as everything else was mine.

So, yeah, the story's going differently than what was written in "Change the World".


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

Yes, I know of the new Neptunia OVA scheduled to be out this summer along with a new game. Waiting on Brave Neptunia as well.

Oh boy, did I screw up on that one. I accidentally posted a chapter for my fic "Dance With the Devil" for this one. That's what I get for posting when I first wake up in the morning at 3 AM. Sorry everyone!

I've come to a startling realization about Noire from Hyper Dimension. If anyone wants to know, PM me, I'll send you my observations from the games.

Also, I have to admit, I'm disappointed I can't search out C-Sha on the character select for this series. K-Sha, B-Sha and S-Sha are all here, but not C-Sha? Blanny's new best friend is sad.

* * *

Noire, CPU of Lastation, sighed as she ran a hand through her hair. "So on top of everything else, the last excursion was a complete flop?"

"Sadly, yes." Blanc, the CPU of Lowee, answered on the other side of the video screen. "The volcano became active, so the chance to get more of the rare materials won't be there for some time. Unless you feel like taking a lava bath."

"No, that's fine." Noire shook her head.

"Tis a shame too," Vert spoke up, her large breasts bouncing on screen, "with those materials, we could have easily crafted some high-end equipment for guild members and ease some of our burdens in regards to the monsters."

Noire nodded before sighing softly. "I wonder how Uni, Rom and Ram are doing."

"I'm sure they're fine." Vert said on her end of the video chat. "Your sisters are quite tough and if they work together they'll be fine, I'm sure."

"Still... I would feel better if I was there with them." Noire muttered, getting a nod from Blanc.

"Yes, but they do need to be able to do things without us. A small monster hunt of tulips and horsebirds shouldn't be a problem for them." Vert answered her. "Believe me, I share your feelings for your younger sisters. I wish I had one, but alas." She sighed and shook her head. "I'm sure that they're fine. After all, birds need to spread their wings and fly."

"True," Blanc nodded, she had been against this whole thing from the start, but she had allowed Vert and her sisters into talking her into agreeing. "I just hope..."

"Hey, sis!" Uni's voice was heard and Noire let out a soft sigh in relief. "We're back."

"Well, I'll call you later if there's another way to get those materials." Vert answered and cut off the call, as did Blanc.

Turning off the video chat, Noire looked up as Uni, Rom and Ram walked into her office. "So I see. How did it go?"

"It went...Okay..." Uni trailed off and fidgeted. "But some of them got away. We chased them down, but..."

"The big meanies found some high level friends." Ram complained and Noire's eyes widened a bit at that.

"Are you all okay then?"

"Uh huh... We got some help." Rom spoke up shyly. She didn't mind Noire, but she was just naturally shy.

"That's good." Noire felt like slumping in her chair. She didn't want to think about what would happen if her sister or Blanc's sisters were hurt. "So, who was it?" If she knew who it was, she could at least send them a thank you letter, maybe some credits or a gift.

When the three looked at each other nervously, Noire narrowed her eyes in confusion.

"It was... Miss Nepgear..." Rom said and the three were treated to a most unusual sight.

Noire went deathly pale and seemingly teleported from her desk to the three of them and was checking them over. "Are you three okay? She didn't hurt you, did she?"

"No... She didn't." Uni shook her head and watched as Noire sighed in relief. "Noire? What's wrong? Is... Is she a bad CPU?" She had never seen her sister look so worried or stressed out before.

Noire shook her head. "No... It's not that." She stood up and took a deep breath. "I suppose I should clarify some things. You three know that before you were born that the four nations were at war, correct?"

The three nodded, they had learned that awhile ago.

"We also know that Planeptune never signed onto the peace treaty." Ram spoke up, getting a nod from Noire as she walked over to her desk and gestured to the seats on the other side of her desk as they all sat down.

"Yes, there's a reason for that." Noire looked at her sister and wondered how she would react to knowing what was to come next, but it had to be said. "During the war, Vert, myself and Blanc did a great disservice to Planeptune and its current CPU."

"Noire?" Uni blinked a few times. "What do you mean?"

"Nepgear, or rather, Lilac Heart, was a young CPU Candidate near the end of the war." Noire had only found out thanks to guild members who were able to get information. "During the final days of the war, before peace was reached, I, Vert, and Blanc..." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "We killed the previous CPU of Planeptune, Purple Heart."

The three Candidates gasped in shock and stared at her.

"I won't go into detail, but after the fight was over, the three of us realized that we had been manipulated by an outside force into being extra aggressive to Purple Heart. Before you ask, we never did find out who manipulated us." Though Noire had her suspicions.

"Why didn't you apologize to her?" Rom asked.

Noire shook her head. "If someone killed Blanc, would you just accept an apology from them?" The two shook their heads and Noire continued. "However, Purple Heart had recorded a message, asking us why we needed to fight, how she had wanted to be friends with us and how she wanted us to help her younger sister."

"I take it that it didn't go down like that, huh?" Uni asked, getting a shake from Noire. "I see..." Uni could understand why Nepgear had been like that then. "So... What happened next?"

"We had to deal with someone by the name of Arfoire. She had taken possession of a powerful tome by the name of Histoire." Noire continued the story. "During our struggles with Arfoire, she had managed to copy our powers and laughed at the fact that without four CPUs that there was nothing that could stop her. She disappeared to Celestia and had announced she was going to use it to destroy Gamindustri." The three gasped in shock at her. "Even though I had been contacted by Histoire and during our struggles with Arfoire I had managed to free her from Arfoire's control, there was nothing that she could do to stop what was happening from happening. Even our road to Celestia was cut off at the time."

"So what happened next?"

"That's when it gets weird." Noire bit her lip. "The road to Celestia suddenly opened up and Vert, Blanc and myself rushed through, only to find Nepgear standing above a dead Arfoire."

"But how did she get there?" Uni asked, getting a shake of Noire's head. "You don't know?"

"No, I don't. I wish I did. But the worst part is..." Noire gave them a serious look. "She had a sword in her hand that radiated malice, death and destruction. It was dripping with blood. Thankfully Nepgear did not seek to use it on us and quietly left. Histoire went after Nepgear to help her as Planeptune had no CPU at the time and she had reassured us that she could help Nepgear become a proper CPU."

"So when..." Rom began, "I said we met Miss Nepgear..."

"I was worried she would try to get back at us by hurting you three. Wait, why did you meet her? She never leaves her country."

"Um..."

Noire hung her head and groaned. "You three ended up in Planeptune?!"

"It was an accident!" Uni protested. "And Nepgear even said she didn't want to deal with any problems."

Noire leaned back and groaned. "Goddess dammit, and right before the ten year peace treaty anniversary too." The three blinked at her, not that Noire noticed. "And I had hoped that by now she would have at least calmed down enough to accept an invite to it. Hopefully we could have talked about what happened, or at least gotten her to join the treaty."

"I'm sorry." Uni said, looking down at her feet.

Noire shook her head. "No... No. You did nothing wrong. I'm just glad that nothing came of it."

All three candidates thought back to their interaction with Nepgear in light of this new information.

'...That's so sad.' Uni thought to herself. She couldn't even begin to imagine how much Nepgear was suffering over all of this. 'Does she even have a friend she can talk to? To vent? To have fun with?'

Uni didn't know, and that made it even worse.

(-)

Back in Planeptune...

After reporting on her quests, Nepgear quickly made her way across the city, stopping only twice, once to help an elderly gentleman cross the street when he fell down and once to help a child get her pet cat out of a tree, and she found herself in front of a nondescript building. Walking into the building, she made her way towards a back room and opened the door inside.

"Well..." A soft and effeminate voice spoke up. "I didn't think I'd see you so soon today, honey."

Nepgear just gave the speaker a slightly annoyed look. "Please don't lie to me, Anonydeath, we both know that you were expecting me. Otherwise the door would have been locked."

"OH! To think that you know me so well!" The man in the tall pink power armor giggled in delight. "Why, it's almost like you're my wife!"

"Please, if we got married, we'd be divorced with a year. After all, what kind of woman, Goddess or not, wants a pure maiden husband that has the hots for an enemy CPU?"

Anonydeath snapped his fingers. "Well, darn, there goes my dream of having the two cutest CPUs as wives then. I'll just keep on spying on little Noire then. So, is there a reason you came here? I doubt it was to talk about our lack of a relationship with each other."

"If you weren't hung up on Black Heart so much, Anonydeath, I might take you up on your marriage offer, that is, if you could stand to be with a frigid bitch like me."

"OOOH!" Anonydeath put his hands over his chest. "That one hurt. Again, Nepgear, honey, I really do apologize for what I said when we first met." He sighed when Nepgear crossed her arms over her chest. "Okay, enough with the joking, what are you here for?"

"The CPU Candidates of Lowee and Lastation appeared in Planeptune this morning. While it seems like they had no idea that they had crossed the border..."

"You want me to make sure that there's nothing more nefarious afoot?" Anonydeath's voice was far more serious. "Well, I do have cameras in the other three Basilicoms, as well as audio recorders and I have access to all their computer networks. Thanks to your work as a CPU, this country is so far ahead of the others that even Lastation's vaunted firewalls and securities are easy to bypass."

"I don't suppose you have cameras in their bedrooms and bathrooms do you?"

Anonydeath scoffed. "Honey, please! I can tell you where each of the CPUs are at at any moment when they're inside their Basilicoms. Though I don't have any cameras pointing at their toilets, if that's..."

"I'm not interested when they do that." Nepgear cut him off. She knew there were people with those kinds of fetishes and thankfully Anonydeath wasn't one of them.

"Well, if it makes you feel better, I did catch a conversation with little Noire and those cute little candidates." Anonydeath practically squealed in delight. "Quite an interesting one about your past with them and something about a malicious sword..."

"Don't ask." Nepgear instantly cut him off. "Just so you know, even if you find where it is, I have plenty of security on it, the only person allowed to touch it is me."

"Oh please, a sword that scares even a Goddess? I'm not stupid enough to touch that with an Ancient Dragon." Anonydeath waved her off. "Besides, Nepgear, honey, I enjoy you too much to try and back-stab you in that way." He sighed when she gave him a blank look. "Look, honey, you really should smile more. Beauty like yours is being wasted if you're not smiling."

"Just keep an eye on the other CPUs and report to me if there's any new developments."

"Oh, new developments? Well, I didn't want to bother you about it, but..." Anonydeath trailed off.

"What?"

"Well, it turns out that the other CPUs were looking for some rare materials in some dormant volcanoes for new weapons and the like." Anonydeath shivered as the air seemed to cool by more than ten degrees just by being near the CPU. "Of course, being a proactive sort, I put a request in at the guild for some members to gather the materials first and place some bombs in strategic points along the volcano."

Nepgear gave him a sharp look. "Even if it would cause harm to their nations, I do not..."

"I know you wouldn't want me to hurt any citizens, don't worry, the charges were just strong enough to cause the lava to bubble up enough to flood the caverns but not enough to cause the volcano to erupt." Anonydeath waved her off. "However, we have the materials, they don't... A~n~d..." He sing-songed while pushing a button. "I even have the plans on the weapons they were planning on making." The screen lit up with plans to make weapons, armor and other accessories.

"And this is why I didn't arrest you when I discovered that you hacked into our servers." Nepgear didn't smile, she hadn't done that in years.

But the fact that the temperature in the room had warmed significantly was more than enough for Anonydeath to know that she was pleased.

"I'll have to authorize the study of these materials." Nepgear sighed at that. "I'd like to synthesize them so that we can mass-produce the equipment in these plans." There was no need to hold back. After all, these weapons looked better than the standard fare that her soldiers and the adventurers had.

"Of course, but, honey, I really do care for you and, in my opinion, you look exhausted. When was the last time you slept?"

Nepgear was silent before sighing. "I guess I have been doing too many all-nighters lately."

"We both know that this country won't fall apart if its CPU takes a day off." Anonydeath stood up and put a hand on her shoulder. "Go get some rest, okay?"

Nepgear sighed and nodded, walking off. "Oh, wait, I almost forgot." She pulled out a flash drive and tossed it to Anonydeath. "I put together a program for your cameras in my spare time. It should let you bypass clothes and let you see the bounties underneath."

"YOU MEAN I CAN SEE LITTLE NOIRE NAKED WHENEVER I WANT?! WHOO HOO! Oh, Nepgear, honey, right now I'm so turned on that if you wanted to, I would gladly stop being a pure maiden for you."

Nepgear waved him off and left.

After she left, Anonydeath sighed and sat back down. "Seriously, honey, I really do worry about you." He said in a soft voice. Even if Nepgear would never admit the same, he really considered her to be his best friend in the world.

And after hearing what happened to her ten years ago, he really wished that he could do more for her.

* * *

Anonydeath? Why not? Canonically he was asked by Histoire, in VII, for his help in hacking and getting information on Steamax and Affimojias's location. Besides, this Nepgear doesn't trust or like the other CPUs, having someone who likes to spy on Noire and is a skilled hacker on her side? Yeah, I could see her doing it. After all, in 4GO, Noire and Blanc both openly discuss hiring hackers and crackers to work on their systems, why wouldn't Nepgear do the same?

And, no, Neptune, the Hackers don't have crackers, stop being hungry.


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

So I completely screwed up the previous chapter. It's been fixed, but I think that people didn't get the memo. Again, sorry.

In fact, I screwed up so badly that I'm posting a second chapter today. Then it's back to once a week.

* * *

After getting back to the Basilicom, Nepgear looked at her office and blinked in mild surprise when she saw her sister doing paperwork. "Jupiter?"

"Ah!" The girl jumped slightly. "Sis, you're back early! I'm almost done and..."

"No, it's fine, thank you for doing my paperwork." Nepgear honestly felt like a failure in a lot of ways, especially around her sister. She wasn't sure how to interact with her, but she always tried to praise the girl and build up her confidence when she did the right things. "If you see Histoire, please inform her that I will be retiring for the day and unless it's an emergency to not bother me."

Jupiter nodded at her. "Um, sis, should I..."

"If you want, you can." Nepgear nodded at her. "Or do whatever, just keep the noise down."

Jupiter nodded and Nepgear left the younger girl alone. "Hey, sis!" She quickly ran out of the room and caught Nepgear as she got down the hallway a bit. "Please, um, do you want to play games tomorrow?"

"...If there's time."

Jupiter sighed as Nepgear walked off. "But you always say that." She said softly, knowing that her sister wouldn't be playing anything with her. It wasn't like she was lonely, her sister was around quite a bit, but at the same time she couldn't say that she was close with her sister. 'Is this normal?' Maybe it was that way with the other CPUs and their sisters as well. 'After all, I guess it's hard to be really close to someone who's going to replace you some day, huh?'

For some reason she didn't feel like finishing the paperwork.

"Oh!" She heard Histoire's voice and she looked up to see the Tome floating towards her. "Jupiter, I heard that Nepgear was back, is she?"

"She said she wanted to go to bed for the rest of the day." Jupiter answered, getting a nod from Histoire. "Um... I know there's still some paperwork to do and sis always told me that you hate unfinished work, but could I..."

Histoire nodded, looking at her with sad eyes. "If you wish to play some games, I won't stop you. I can do some of the paperwork and ease the burden on your poor sister."

Jupiter nodded and ran off to the game room.

Sighing after Jupiter left, Histoire hung her head. "A proper CPU needs to know how to relax... That should have been lesson one for me." Yes, Nepgear had turned into probably the best CPU possible, but Histoire felt the cost was too high. "I'm so sorry, Nepgear, I'm so sorry." She whispered, wishing that she could work up the courage to tell it to Nepgear's face.

(-)

After showering and changing into some pajamas, Nepgear flopped onto her bed and looked at the time. 'Just past noon, first time I've gone to bed this early.' Still, she was tired. Flipping the covers over and burying herself in them, she blinked as she felt a lump next to her. Flipping the covers up, her eyes softened as she saw two plushies, one looked like Neptune in her human form and one looked like Purple Heart. "Onee-chan..." She said softly, her eyes tearing up as she looked at them and she slowly recalled how she got them.

(-)

Ten years ago...

"Oh!" An elderly lady smiled as she saw the newly crowned CPU of Planeptune. It was rather late in the day and she was about to close up her shop, but she wouldn't refuse the Goddess of the nation. "How are you, Lady Nepgear?"

"I'm..." The new CPU shook her head. "I'm doing okay, I suppose. I have a question for you." The elderly lady nodded. "Do you... Do you remember how the previous CPU looked? In either form?"

The elderly lady laughed softly. "Is that all? Of course I do. In fact." She winked at Nepgear and reached under the counter and pulled out a plushie of both Neptune and Purple Heart. "I don't have many of these left."

"How much!?"

"Well, for you..." The lady trailed off, thinking about it. "I'll give them to you for free." Nepgear's eyes widened and the lady gave her a kind smile. "I know she was your sister, and I'm sorry that she's gone."

"How do you..."

"My granddaughter is a staff member at your Basilicom and she talks about work from time to time." The lady smiled kindly as Nepgear took the plushies and gently hugged them. "You should know that the staff loved your sister."

Nepgear's eyes started to tear up and she bowed to the lady. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

"Dear, just take it easy, okay? I'm sure you'll be a fine CPU one day too, just like your sister."

Nepgear sniffled and nodded at her.

*End flashback*

That was probably the last happy memory she had. Nepgear hugged both plushies to her and rocked back and forth in her bed. "Onee-chan... I wish you were here." She sighed softly before closing her eyes and trying to get some sleep.

(-)

Jupiter smiled softly as she moved around in the 4 Goddesses Online MMO. Her sister had pretty strict travel restrictions in and out of the country, and for good reason, but she never stopped anyone from playing online games with anyone, even if they were from the other nations.

_"I'm not going to punish the population for what the rulers of the other nations do. It's not like they're the ones pushing this stupid war."_

'Sis...' Jupiter sighed and shook her head. 'No, now's not the time to worry about that, I should just try to enjoy playing.' It had been months since she had last logged in. She wasn't like some people, like that legendary +Green_Heart+ user, that could spend hundreds of hours playing MMOs, but she still enjoyed playing them sometimes.

A ding caught her attention and her eyes widened. "Oh! It's Single Shot!"

_"Hey, Twin Swords, haven't seen you for awhile."_

Jupiter nodded and typed her reply. "Yeah, sorry, been really busy helping my sister out."

_"You too, huh? Anyway, got some spare time, want to go hunting or something?"_

"Sure, are the other two going to show up?" Jupiter asked in reply.

Two new dings showed up and Jupiter's eyes lit up as she saw the two she had been asking about had just logged in. "Hey! DS_Lite and +DS_i+!" She typed in, getting their attention.

_"Hey! Twin Swords, it's good to see you. *Happy*"_

Jupiter giggled, DS_Lite always made her giggle with the way she would actually write out how she was feeling rather than using emojis. "Been too long."

_"Yeah! Come on! We should do something fun!"_ +DS_i+ commented.

Single Shot replied _"Want to go on a quick hunt together?"_

"Sure!" Jupiter typed in and smilied as DS_Lite and +DS_i+ both responded positively. "I'm a bit underleveled compared to you three though, sorry."

_"No worries, there's some item drops that I need to get so I can strengthen my weapons anyway and the monsters aren't too strong."_ Single Shot replied.

Jupiter nodded. "Alright, let's go."

(-)

In another part of the Basilicom, Histoire floated over to a picture of Nepgear that had been taken just after she had been crowned the CPU of Planeptune. "I screwed up so much."

_"Hey! Histoire, can I take some time off? I'm getting kind of stiff sitting here."_

_"You haven't finished the paperwork for the zoning for the new arcade, have you?"_

_"But that project won't be ready to go for another nine months. Surely I can..."_

_"Nepgear, it's important to get it done early. The sooner you get it done, the sooner the project can finish when it starts and the smoother it will be to get done."_

_"I just wanted to play some games."_

_"I'm sorry, Nepgear, but there's so much to do. When we finish the work you can take time off and play, okay?"_

_"...Okay..."_

"I should never have said that." Histoire fought the urge to cry as she squeezed her dress and trembled. "I really shouldn't have. I should have let her have a day off."

_"Hey, Histoire, I finished the paperwork."_

_"Good job."_

_"Um, what's with all these papers?"_

_"You took so long that this all piled up."_

_"WHAT?! But I just..."_

_"Sorry, Nepgear, but you need to get these done too. I've done some, but if I was to do this, it would take me three months by myself."_

_"Okay, I'll help you."_

_"Thank you. If we hurry there might be time to play some games later."_

"But it never ended, did it?" Histoire sighed, tears running down her cheeks. "It never ended..."

_"Histoire, could you bring the next wave of paperwork in?"_

_"Actually, Nepgear, that was the last you needed to do."_

_"Really? Wow... It's been so long since I haven't seen papers that needed to be signed."_

_"Yes, even with all the help you had, it took... Oh dear, it's been over five months already?"_

_"Oh. But we're caught up now, I can..."_

_"Nepgear, you know that CPU's first duty is to her citizens."_

_"But I've been a good CPU, haven't I? I've done all the paperwork without question and it's all done now."_

_"Yes, but I've checked the share levels, they could be better. You're not bad off, but they could be better. The citizens might not think you care about them. Go do some quests for the citizens then."_

_"...Okay."_

"What in the True Goddess's good Gamindustri was I thinking back then?!" Histoire trembled and clenched her tiny hands into fists. "Nepgear didn't need lessons on being a good CPU. She needed time to cry, time to scream and vent her sorrow. She needed to be able to take time to play games and relax. What did I do? I forced her to work hard and do what I thought a good CPU was like."

She knew that Nepgear didn't hate her over it, Histoire knew that Nepgear understood why she did what she did.

However well intentioned, Histoire knew that her actions drove a wedge between her and her CPU. No matter how hard she tried to fix the damage over the past seven plus years, Nepgear never treated her as anything more than an associate. "I should be thankful that she doesn't flat-out hate and resent me."

(-)

In Lastation...

Noire sat at her desk and leaned back in the chair. "Nepgear, huh? It's been five years since I last saw you." Part of her wanted to go to Planeptune and ask for forgiveness, to apologize and take any punishment that Nepgear could think of. 'Why? Why couldn't we stop fighting back then?'

Noire wished, with all her heart, that she could go back in time, to that fateful day, and stop fighting. "If I hadn't..."

Nothing could change the past, what was done was done.

Not that that gave her any comfort.

*Five years ago*

"Are you sure it's a good idea to head to Planeptune?" Blanc, in her White Heart form, glared at Noire.

"If the information we have is true, we're going to need the CPU of Planeptune's help." Black Heart shot back as they crossed the border in the air. "Look, we'll go through the front door and, YIPE!" She nearly jumped as a powerful laser blast tore through the air in front of her.

"Well..." Green Heart looked down to see a bunch of soldiers and heavily armored tanks, turrets and cannons pointed right at them. "It looks like we aren't exactly welcome here."

"CPUs of Lastation, Lowee and Leanbox, please return to your countries. If you do not return, we will consider this an act of war and fire everything we have while calling for our CPU to come here. This is your only warning."

"What now?" Green Heart asked and watched as Black Heart lowered herself down, holding both hands up in a non-threatening manner.

"Parlay." Black Heart called out as she lowered herself to the ground, though she stayed back several feet to try and keep tensions from exploding. "We are not here to invade, conquer or spy. We wish to speak to the CPU of Planeptune on a matter of grave importance."

"I apologize, CPU Black Heart, but I cannot let any of you three any further in. Please return to your countries."

Black Heart took a deep breath, she knew that they were just doing their jobs. "I apologize as well, but we truly need to talk to your CPU. If we cannot go to her, could you please call her and relay our wishes?"

Black Heart wasn't sure why, but the commander in charge told the others to stand down and made the call himself.

"Lady Lilac Heart will come here personally." The commander said after a minute of talking on the phone. "It should not take her long."

Exactly three minutes later, Lilac Heart appeared in the air and lowered herself to the ground, standing in front of her soldiers, her gunblade in her hand. "What is it that you want, Black Heart?"

"Scouts for Lastation discovered a cave system that runs along the Planeptune and Lastation border." Behind Black Heart, both White and Green Heart were looking at Lilac Heart seriously. "There are signs of Delphinus appearing deep below."

Lilac Heart's eyes widened slightly. "A powerful monster, said to eclipse even a CPU's might."

"Lilac Heart, no, Nep..."

"Please keep this professional, Black Heart." Lilac Heart interrupted her, her eyes not betraying any emotion. "If you wish for my help dealing with this thing, then I shall help you." When the other CPUs looked at her in surprise, she merely raised an eyebrow at them. "A powerful monster such as Delphinus should not run around unchecked. If it were to leave the area it was in, it could cause untold havoc to the world. Lead the way."

"Lady Lilac Heart?" The commander gasped in shock.

"This is something that is beyond any individual CPU to deal with. That being said, until I return, shut the border down and do not let anyone in or out."

"Right."

"Follow us then." Black Heart said as she, White Heart and Green Heart turned and flew off, Lilac Heart following right afterwords.

After a few minutes of flying, White Heart suddenly stopped and turned to face Lilac Heart. "I didn't want to say anything in front of your people, because I'm sure that you wouldn't answer, but now that we're here, can we trust you?"

Lilac Heart took a deep breath. "My personal feelings towards you three aside, this is an enemy that I cannot defeat on my own. Allow me to make my intentions perfectly clear if you do not trust me. I do not care for any of you. If any of you gets injured in the fight against Delphinus, I will not take the time to heal you, I also fully expect that you three will gladly leave me behind if I end up hurt and unable to move, I will also not try to harm you myself so long as this mission is ongoing. Make no mistake, we are only temporary allies, we are not friends, comrades nor full-time allies."

"Tsk..." White Heart growled, but spun and flew towards the cave. "Just keep your end of the bargain up."

"Of course." Lilac Heart nodded and flew after them.

(-)

The battle had been long, hard and Noire could feel her legs giving out as she struggled to stand. Even though she was still in her HDD form, she was struggling to keep it going.

"That... Was pretty tough." Green Heart grinned. It was always nice to get the blood pumping through a great battle.

Lilac Heart said nothing and turned to leave.

"Nepgear, wait!" Black Heart called out and, ignoring how tired her body was, floated over to her. "Please, we need to..."

"Please go home." Lilac Heart looked at her, her blue eyes were hollow and empty. "I have no desire to stay here and exchange pleasantries with you."

"Nepgear, please..." Noire had a hand half-raised towards her. "It's been five years now, I understand why you didn't join the peace treaty with us then, but please join now."

"What did you call that treaty again?" Lilac Heart asked. "The... Friendship pact?" Noire nodded at her. "For me to join that, it would imply that I could be friends with my sister's murderers." She turned and floated out of the caves. "If you three want me to join it, find a way to bring my sister back to life." She stopped and looked up. "Or you three could get yourselves a younger sister and then die shortly after she was born. Then I'll join your friendship pact. Otherwise, no."

Noire sighed as Nepgear flew off. "...Dammit..."

"That stupid brat!" White Heart growled in frustration. She had been against trying to befriend Nepgear after they had ended Purple Heart's life, at least until she had found out they had been manipulated during that fateful battle. There were too many nights that she woke up from a nightmare where either Neptune or Nepgear appeared in front of her asking her to die for them and this didn't help any.

"She has every right to hate us." Green Heart sighed heavily. "Let's give her more time. Anyway, we should leave."

Black Heart sighed and nodded. "Yeah."

*End Flashback.*

After they had returned home, both Blanc and Noire had made an announcement about how the four nations had united for a short period of time to deal with one of the strongest monsters to ever exist and had talked about how there was hope for a united and peaceful Gamindustri.

What neither she nor Blanc had expected was that faith would skyrocket after that announcement, to the point that their younger sisters were born.

To Noire, the instant she saw her younger sister, she had to fight the urge to hug her and never let her go. 'Was that how Neptune felt when she saw Nepgear the first time?' As much as she loved her younger sister, Noire had a hard time looking at her without being crushed under heavy guilt. She couldn't imagine leaving her sister alone forever, forcing her to become Lastation's CPU before she was ready. She couldn't imagine how much sorrow and pain Uni would suffer through if her elder sister was gone forever.

And yet, she had forced Nepgear to go through that when she, Vert and Blanc killed Purple Heart all those years ago.

Noire was glad that she was alone right then and there. Because if anyone saw her right then and there, she would never be able to face anyone ever again.

She crossed her arms on her desk, buried her face into them and started to cry. "Neptune... Nepgear... I'm so sorry."

* * *

What? You all thought that Nepgear was the only one suffering?

There will be flashbacks throughout the story.


	5. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

Before the chapter begins, I want to remind people that I wrote some scenes out ahead of time when I was talking to a friend of mine, so some parts that I wrote will seem a bit redundant as I wrote the fic around the scenes.

* * *

It was almost a week later when Histoire found Nepgear at her desk doing paperwork again. "Ah, Nepgear, a letter came today."

"Put it in the pile."

"Ah, no, it's not a request, well, it might be, but..."

Nepgear sighed and stopped doing the paperwork she was working on and turned to Histoire. "I will look at it as soon as I get to it."

The small fairy shook her head. "No, it's not that." She floated over and dropped it in front of Nepgear. "It's from Lastation's Basilicom."

"I see..." Nepgear picked up the letter, stood up and proceeded to walk over to the trash before tearing it into pieces and dumping the contents into the trash without looking.

Histoire sighed as she watched Nepgear do that. "I had a feeling you would do that. I took the liberty of reading it ahead of time. Noire wanted to thank you for helping her sister out a week ago as well as ask you to come to the peace conference in a couple of weeks."

"...What peace conference?" Nepgear turned to look at her, confusion on her face.

"Why the one that signifies the ten year anniversary of the en...Um, I mean of the ceasefire that the other CPUs agreed to when they signed that peace treaty." Histoire coughed, knowing that neither Nepgear nor Planeptune officially recognized the end of the Console Wars. "Basically it's a gala for important people from developers and journalists to rich people to show up, the CPUs make a speech and talk to the press about the hopes and plans for the future and reaffirm the peace between the nations."

"You've been talking to the other CPUs lately, haven't you?" Nepgear asked, her voice neutral.

Histoire fought the urge to gulp and slowly nodded. "Well, yes. The other CPUs were hoping you would show up." Nepgear's eyes narrowed slightly and this time Histoire did gulp. Nepgear had impeccable control over her emotions, Histoire knew, but she also knew that the girl bottled everything up inside and rarely, if ever, vented.

"I have work."

"Please, Nepgear..."

"I have to authorize synthesis of rare materials, the go-ahead for mass-producing weapons, armor and items based on those items and..."

"It wouldn't look good for Planeptune if you were the only Goddess not in attendance." Histoire interrupted her, mentally cursing the fact that she had slipped back into the role she had used on Nepgear for the first couple of years to make her into a fine CPU. "I understand that you hate them. It's no secret that Planeptune is on bad terms with the rest of Gamindustri. But if you were to go you could show the top developers that Planeptune is serious about continuing the peace and developing top quality games. Plus if our citizens see you there it might help ease some tensions between the nations and drive shares up. After all, a Goddess that can be cordial with her enemies is one worth following, don't you agree?"

Nepgear was silent for several minutes, not even blinking, her face completely blank, before she slowly nodded. "When is it?"

"In three weeks. And, Nepgear, I'm not asking you to stay any longer than you must. Just show up, have a few pictures taken and answer the media's questions. Please try to keep the vitriol to a minimum though." Histoire had hope for this. Even if it went nowhere, even if Planeptune didn't join the peace treaty, she hoped that this would be the first step to helping Nepgear heal and mend the scars on her heart.

"Do you honestly expect me to go to a place where my enemies are at? To leave myself vulnerable to an assassin, an ambush or just flat-out them ganging up on me?" Nepgear asked softly. "Need I remind you that's how my sister was killed?"

Histoire shook her head. "No... No you don't. I know how she died, Nepgear, even though I was sealed away, the death of a CPU is something that couldn't be hidden from me no matter how hard someone tried. Please... There will be too many people there. Yes, it will be in Lastation, but I'm sure they won't try anything. If you're worried, you should not worry, I will be attending as well."

"...If you were going to go, why do you need me?"

"It would look bad if the Oracle showed up but the CPU did not. Speaking of whom, you still have to announce Jupiter to both the people of Planeptune and the world. It might be a good time to..."

"I am barely tolerating the thought of being near those three murderers for any length of time. You want me to announce my little sister, my CPU Candidate, to the world? You want me to put her in the cross-hairs of some crazed lunatic who Noire, Vert or Blanc might hire? You seriously think I want to lose another sister in my life?!" Nepgear was glaring and Histoire trembled as Nepgear's anger started to seep through the cracks in her facade. "I might be a failure in everything, Histoire, but I'm trying to not be a total screw up as a big sister. If I announce her, I'm only inviting danger into her life and more potential heart-break into mine!"

Histoire could only watch as Nepgear stormed out of the office, slamming the doors behind her and leaving the tome alone in the darkened room.

"That... Could have gone better." Histoire said after a few minutes. She knew Nepgear had tremendous rage deep inside, and just feeling a few moments of it...

She truly feared that Nepgear would give into it and do something horrible one day. "What... What can I do? What can I do? I don't know anymore. I need help."

(-)

The days came and went quickly, Histoire had kept her distance from Nepgear during that time, for which the CPU was thankful for. The fact that she was being asked to interact with those three for any length of time just made her...

Extremely irritated.

Jupiter looked at Nepgear as her sister, in full HDD, stood at the balcony of the residential area of the Basilicom. "So..."

"I'll be going. Go ahead and have fun tonight." Nepgear looked at her sister and bit her lip. She knew Histoire was right, she had been keeping her sister too locked up and it was probably harming her growth as a result. But the thought of letting Jupiter be known and coming home from a mission and finding out that she had been murdered.

Or worse, her sister taking on a mission and dying because of one of their enemies...

Nepgear didn't think she would be able to handle it. She still had that cursed sword, albeit it was sealed away at that moment. And she knew, she knew that if her younger sister was killed that she would unseal the sword and murder her way across the entirety of Gamindustri in revenge.

"Sis?" Jupiter asked in confusion. "Don't you need to go?"

"Yes." Nepgear nodded and turned to look at Histoire. Grabbing the book, she spread her wings and flew off.

Jupiter sighed heavily. "Just what can I do?" She wanted to help her sister, maybe find a way to make her smile.

But most of all, she wanted to see what the world was like outside of the Basilicom.

(-)

Touching down not far from the conference hall, which was being held in Lastation, Nepgear took a deep breath and shifted her outfit from her battle outfit to a light pink colored dress that covered her body, though a slit on the side revealed her legs and her arms were completely bared. "Let's get this over with." She muttered as Histoire floated near her.

"Nepgear, please..." Nepgear looked at her.

"It will be fine, Histoire. A CPU must steel her heart and do what's good for everyone, even if it causes her pain after all." That was the last lesson Neptune had given her.

Inside the meeting hall, the other three CPUs, in their HDD forms and wearing fancy dresses that matched the colors of their nations, stood near the stage and waved at people who called to them and smiled as pictures were taken.

"You really should calm down, Noire." Vert said to the other CPU. The two of them and Blanc were in their Goddess forms. "The announcement doesn't start for another ten minutes."

"...I know."

"Feh, if you don't stop stressin' out your human form will have the same hair as your Goddess form." White Heart smirked at her.

Black Heart shook her head. "No, I'm not worried about that, I'm..."

"I do hope you're not expecting her to actually show up tonight." Green Heart looked at Noire. "She never leaves her borders for anything less than a world-ending crisis. She never sticks around afterwords and never says anything during the whole thing when we're forced to work together."

"I know, I guess I had hoped after ten years that..."

"Announcing... From Planeptune, Lady Lilac Heart and Lady Histoire."

"...Well, guess she decided to show up." Vert commented and saw Nepgear and Histoire walk in.

Seeing Nepgear look at them for only a moment before looking away caused Noire to sigh. 'Those damn eyes.' She didn't know how, but Nepgear had mastered suppressing her emotions to a degree that even Noire couldn't fathom. It was probably a good thing because Goddess only knew if Nepgear was still furious with them. "Nepgear," she nodded at the other CPU as she came over. "I'm glad you..."

"Let's not waste words, Noire, I have no desire to be here. I'm only here because Histoire twisted my arms. As soon as we're done answering the media, I and my oracle will be returning to Planeptune." Nepgear's voice was soft and even, but the under-current of emotions were still there.

Noire sighed, this was going to be a long night, wasn't it?

Blanc growled, but bit her tongue otherwise. Nepgear had kept her voice soft enough that only the Goddesses could pick up on what she had said.

"We're starting now." Vert commented and the four CPUs took to the stage to talk platitudes about peace and friendship while answering some questions.

As the conference went on, Nepgear stood off to the side from the other three CPUs while they talked to the media. No one was surprised by this, after all, Planeptune was known for not being on good terms with the other nations. In fact, everyone in the room knew that it was an absolute shock to see Lilac Heart in the same room as the other three CPUs for any reason.

Even the original peace treaty that united the other three nations didn't have Planeptune sign on after all. However the three CPUs had tried to alleviate the fears of war continuing on by stating that they would not take an aggressive stance against Planeptune or its CPU. And thankfully Planeptune seemed mostly content to stay quiet, outside of new releases of games that is.

"It is our hope that we can look back at the last ten years as a spring board for more years of peace." Black Heart finished speaking.

"Excuse me, Lady Lilac Heart!" Dengekiko spoke up, causing the erstwhile CPU to look at her. Gulping at the sight of those cold eyes, she continued on. "What are your thoughts on this?"

"I do hope that these times of peace can continue. It would be nice for CPUs to be able to step down of their own accord and not need to worry about being killed by rivals and leaving their nations or younger sisters alone before their time."

Vert, Blanc and Noire all twitched, though it was very subtle and only a few people noticed it.

Histoire, unseen to everyone, winced heavily. She had known Nepgear long enough to know that those words, despite being neutral and most people would only know of them as references to the old wars when CPUs were killing each other, were laced with so much hate and venom that she was surprised that no one was infected with poison and virus at that moment.

Thankfully the media circus calmed down and the four CPUs were allowed to finally walk off the stage.

"We need to talk." Black Heart whispered to Lilac Heart. "There's a private room upstairs." Nepgear narrowed her eyes at Noire, who shook her head. "It's not a trap."

"I don't believe you."

"...Please, Nep..." She stopped as Nepgear glared at her. "Please, I promise, no harm will come to you."

"I'm not a foolish optimist." Nepgear said softly. "If we're going to talk, it'll be over there." She pointed at an open balcony.

"Fine..."

The four CPUs walked out onto the balcony before Vert, being the last one, closed the door behind them to try and muffle the conversation somewhat.

"Seriously, what the hell?" Blanc practically growled at Nepgear. "We're trying to be nice to you and this is how you repay us?"

"Like how you repaid my sister's kindness? How did it go again? Something like an ax to the back, a spear to the heart and a sword through the gut?" Nepgear glowered at them. "You really think that I give a damn about your kindness?"

"What would it take to get you to forgive us?" Noire asked Nepgear.

"I dunno, bring my sister back." Nepgear nodded. "Yes, bring her back. And while you're at it, why don't you three just disappear from the world?"

"We can't do that." Noire shook her head. "Nepgear, please, we really..."

"Save it, Noire." Blanc snarled. "This brat doesn't care about that. She's just too caught up in herself to care about anything like friends."

"That was too harsh, Blanc." Vert admonished, frowning and hoping that Nepgear didn't get too angry over it. "Nepgear, please..."

"You know something, Blanc... Maybe you're right." Nepgear walked to the edge of the balcony. "But you know, I could have killed your sisters when they trespassed in my country. But I didn't. Because unlike you three I know the pain of losing someone important to me. We're done here, don't ever call me for anything less than the end of the world again."

Seeing Nepgear take off at high speeds for Planeptune, Noire sighed again. 'Maybe Blanc is right. Maybe we should just give up on her?' She didn't want to, but after ten years it was getting harder to keep hope alive that they could be friends with Nepgear.

"You can come out, Histoire." Vert said softly as the tome floated over to them. "I truly am sorry. We had hoped that after all these years that her anger towards us had cooled a bit."

Histoire shook her head. "I'm afraid not. I fear that she cannot handle it anymore." A truly sad look came across her face. "I... I don't know what to do anymore. I've tried, I've tried so hard to undo the damage that I did to her." Her body shook as she started to cry. "I didn't consider her feelings in the slightest."

Noire continued to look in the direction that Nepgear had gone. "Histoire... Does she have anyone to talk to?"

"...Not as far as I know, no."

Noire sighed softly as she thought about that. 'Even if I don't have many people to talk to or many people close to me, I still have Vert and Blanc. Are you telling me that Nepgear has fewer friends than even me?'

It was at that moment that Noire wished she could invent time travel, go back into the past and beat her younger self black and blue for being an idiot.

(-)

Jupiter looked up as the door to her room opened up and Nepgear stood in the door way. "Sis, are you..." Nepgear's younger sister was silenced as Nepgear suddenly knelt down and hugged her tightly while shaking and crying. "Sis?"

"Please... I'm sorry. Please... Don't leave me. Please."

"Sis..."

"Don't go. Please, stay here. Don't go."

The younger girl had no idea what her older sister was talking about, but she nodded and hugged her back. "I promise, sis. I won't go anywhere. I won't leave you."

Nepgear tightened her hug. "Thank you, sister."

Jupiter wondered just how badly the conference had gone, she hadn't bothered to watch it live and figured she'd watch it on Neptube the next morning. 'Sis...' She noticed that her sister had shifted to her human form. "Want to sleep in here tonight?"

"Sure." Nepgear had tears rolling out of her eyes slowly as Jupiter pulled her into bed.

As Nepgear clung to her tightly, Jupiter rubbed her sister's back. It wasn't often, but this was one of the few times that she knew her sister would show emotion. Even if it wasn't pleasant, at least she was showing something.

"Nep...tune... I'm sorry." She heard her sister whisper softly and part of her wondered who Neptune was.

'If there's anyone named Neptune out there... Please... Help my sister. Help Nepgear. Please!' Jupiter shouted out mentally, praying that someone could hear her and help Nepgear.

* * *

I'm writing this fic and even I'm getting depressed.


	6. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

Why does everyone want to kill Anonydeath? Just because he's peeping on Noire?

* * *

"Well..." Anonydeath spoke up as he heard the door to his work place open up. "You sure put on a show last night, honey. The internet boards are raving about you."

Nepgear didn't say anything and looked at one of the monitors. "If I had Noire in front of me and chained up, I wouldn't be spanking her with a riding crop, I'd be slowly peeling the skin off of her body and record the whole thing to show everyone while I told everyone what she did to me."

Anonydeath sighed. "Honey, please, you might hate her but you don't have the stomach for that. You're not a sadist at heart."

Nepgear crossed her arms over her breasts and let out a huff of annoyance. "Regardless, I take it that the responses were mostly good?" It wasn't egotism talking, her shares hadn't dropped any, so she could only assume that the responses were positive.

"Mostly mixed actually." Anonydeath answered as she walked over and the two looked at the various message boards. "N-chan mostly seems to love the "cool and aloof" CPU while Neppit's far more negative. Chirper's all over the place, you got idiots with the verified accounts talking trash about you but there's lots of people challenging them as well."

"I see..." Nepgear shook her head. "Well, that's to be expected I suppose."

"I've been keeping my eye on the wiki for vandals as well. Nothing's come of it yet." Anonydeath finished and watched as Nepgear nodded slowly. The two sat in silence for some time, just looking the data over.

"Well, I should go before Histoire finds I'm not there and organizes a search party to find me." Nepgear turned to leave.

"I do have a question for you, honey." Anonydeath looked at her. "When are you going to announce your cute little sister to the world?" When Nepgear turned to look at him, he started to visibly sweat, even through his armor. "Don't you think I wouldn't know that you have one?"

"I have no intention of introducing her, Anonydeath. Not now, not ever. We both know that she'll be nothing but a target the instant that she becomes known. Unlike me, she hasn't learned the painful lesson to never trust anyone."

"Does that mean you don't trust me?" Anonydeath sounded hurt.

Nepgear didn't answer and walked off, leaving Anonydeath to stare after her as she left.

"Oh honey, I really wish I could help you smile or at least start trusting people again." Anonydeath sympathized with Histoire. At least he only had to put up with Nepgear when she decided to visit. The tome had to deal with her every day. "Speaking of which, where is that tome?"

(-)

"I should have asked for a cab ride back to Planeptune." Histoire muttered as she finally made her way back into the Basilicom. Black Heart had given her a lift to the border before letting her go. Turning a corner, she let out a small yelp as she nearly crashed into Nepgear, who was just leaving the kitchen. "Ah! Nepgear, I'm sorry, I didn't see you there."

"It's fine." Nepgear answered and walked off. "I'll be in my office if anyone needs me."

Histoire nodded and floated off to the living room area. Calling it that was too generous in Histoire's opinion. While there were couches, chairs, a television and a game console in the room, it was utterly devoid of things that made it feel like a living room.

Namely pictures, people and other small things.

Floating over to the couch, Histoire softly sighed as she looked at the upholstery. It was in impeccable condition, but that was because no one ever used it. Looking at the console in the room, she frowned as she saw it sitting there, gathering dust. Nepgear was always busy with work and never stopped to play games and Jupiter had complained that playing games was never fun by herself.

"Such irony..." Histoire sighed again. "The Goddess of the most advanced nation, the one with games that encourage multiple players... Never plays games." It just didn't feel right, in her opinion, to have a Goddess of Planeptune never take the time to sit down and play games.

_"Histoire! I finished the quests."_

_"Good job, Nepgear, there was some paperwork that came in while you were out."_

_"I was hoping to play some games. It's been a long time..."_

_"Nepgear..."_

_"I know, I know. Okay, I'll do the paperwork."_

Histoire growled in frustration. "Why? Why was I so stupid?!" She hated what she did. "I have no excuses." She looked down at her hands as her body trembled in anger. "I need to make it up to her." How, she had no clue.

Knowing that staying in the living room would do her no good, Histoire floated out and back towards the work area, only stopping as Jupiter came around the corner. "Hello, Jupiter."

"Ah! Histoire." Jupiter's eyes lit up. "Hey, I was wondering if you knew where sis was."

"She said she'd be in her office."

Jupiter nodded and ran off, causing Histoire to wonder why Jupiter had asked.

(-)

"You want to what?" Nepgear asked as she looked at Jupiter.

"I want to leave the Basilicom and do quests and stuff." Jupiter answered, causing Nepgear to sigh. "Please, sis. I've been cooped up in this place for years. I watched the conference this morning, sis. It was all over Neptube. I don't think..." She gulped at Nepgear narrowed her eyes slightly. "Please, I promise, I won't do anything dangerous. But all I've done is minor things, help you do paper work, practice my combat skills in the training room. What good is a CPU Candidate who isn't even known to anyone but you and Histoire?! If something happens and I have to take over but no one even knows that Planeptune has a CPU Candidate! I've checked! All the information lists Planeptune as just having a CPU and no candidate."

Nepgear held up a hand and took a deep breath to try and calm down. Letting out the breath slowly, she nodded. "You... Do have a point, Jupiter. But I can't let people know who you are."

"But the other CPUs..."

"Are exactly why I can't let you become known." Nepgear stood up and walked over to her sister before kneeling and looking at her in the eyes. "Please, trust me on this. If you became known, people would expect you to appear in public, to do events, to be out there. And even if there's strict controls on who can and cannot get into Planeptune..."

"Sis! Please!" Jupiter put her hands on Nepgear's shoulders. "I've seen nothing that says the war is continuing."

Nepgear shook her head. "No... Even if the other nations have made a supposed peace with each other, I cannot trust them at all. I won't announce you to the public, but..." Sighing and closing her eyes to try and ward off the surge of emotions. "I know you need this. You've unlocked your HDD, right?" Jupiter nodded. "Very well then. You can go out and do quests." Jupiter's eyes lit up. "Keep to the lower ranking stuff at first, okay? You need to register with the guild, correct?" Jupiter nodded and Nepgear stood up. "Alright, you know how to do that, right?"

"Yep. In fact," she pulled out a piece of paper, "got my registration done ahead of time."

Nepgear walked over and took the paper and looked it over to see if everything was in the right order before nodding. "Fine, just... Be careful and don't announce you're the CPU Candidate."

"No problem!" Jupiter smiled brightly as she took the paper back from Nepgear.

Nepgear didn't smile, but her eyes did soften. "Alright, go get ready, I have work to do, and don't be out too late, okay?"

"Got it, sis!" Jupiter ran off, a skip in her step.

After Jupiter left and closed the door, Nepgear stood still, looking down and trembling while squeezing a fist. "Dammit, Jupiter... Dammit! You can't trust anyone. Who's to say there aren't a bunch of spies in the guild who are trained to kill a Goddess?" After all, she had a sword that could end a Goddess's life with a single strike. She had no clue if the other nations had similar weapons or not. 'If they don't, they're stupid.' She thought to herself.

One thing that she didn't like was the fact that to keep her sister a secret...

Jupiter would have to do quests without her help and support.

"DAMMIT!" Nepgear finally erupted and slammed her fists on her desk, causing it to shake and some of the papers to fall off.

(-)

After leaving the Basilicom, Jupiter wandered around the city, just taking in the sights. 'Things look so different from down here.' She had a general idea of where to go, plus if she got completely lost, she could always bring up a map on her HUD if needed.

Still, she didn't want to go right to the guild, there was so much to see out in the city!

'Too bad I don't have much money.' She groused as she smelled some really delicious food. 'Oh well, I'll do some quests and get money that way.'

After all, there was no point in doing quests if you were starving.

Traveling through the capital, Jupiter smiled at the residents. 'It's so nice out here, I wish sis would have let me out sooner.' She could understand though, considering the situation between Nepgear and the other CPUs.

After a few minutes, Jupiter's eyes went blank as she looked around. "GAH! I'm lost!" She hung her head in dismay. 'What kind of CPU Candidate gets lost in her own nation's capital city?!' She knew that if word ever got out about her being lost that she'd never live it down.

"Well, where are you trying to get to?" A new voice spoke up and Jupiter stopped and turned to see a woman of average height with short red hair and orange eyes wearing a blue skirt with white trim and short jacket that left her abdomen completely exposed, her modest bust was covered by what looked like white leather armor, she had blue boots on and black leggings that went up most of the way up her thighs while she wore finger-less gloves. The woman smiled at her. "Hi, my name's Falcom."

"Oh, um, hi, I'm Jupiter." The girl tilted her head in confusion. "Should I know who you are?"

Falcom laughed softly. "No, I suppose not. This is actually the first time I've been in Planeptune in a long time." She nodded at Jupiter's shocked expression. "Yeah, I'm a world traveler. I like exploring new places and writing about them."

"You're a writer?" Jupiter asked, getting a shake from Falcom.

"Nope, just a traveler who writes my adventures down in my diary. Some people find what I write fascinating though and a whole book series has been made about my adventures."

Jupiter frowned at hearing that. "But, um, that..."

"Well, that's what I do. I just like to adventure and see what the landscape is like. What about you?"

"I was looking to go to the guild." Jupiter answered, looking around in confusion. "But I don't know where it is. I thought it was in this direction, but..."

Falcom giggled at her. "Is that all? Come on! You weren't far off, just a couple of blocks in that direction and then take a left."

"Oh, thanks!" Jupiter smiled at her. "I'll just be going then."

"Well, good luck, I'm sure we'll meet again." Falcom smiled as she walked off.

"What a nice woman." Jupiter smiled, though part of her was worried about the woman admitting that she wrote about stuff in Planeptune. "I hope it's okay. Sis knows about her, right?"

As she walked away, Falcom frowned as she realized something. "That girl looks kind of like Lady Neptune. But she's dead, so why?" She turned her head back to look at Jupiter as she ran off and frowned in confusion. She had only met Neptune when she was younger, but the CPU's human form was incredibly unique in both looks and personality.

Even if it had been over ten years since she last met Neptune, Falcom doubted she'd ever forget her.

(-)

"So this is the guild, huh?" Jupiter asked as she entered the building. Looking around, she could see it was pretty orderly with a few people sitting around and chatting with others. Shrugging, she walked up to the desk. "Hello, I'd like to register with the guild."

"Sure." The person behind the desk smiled at Jupiter. "Do you have your paperwork ready or do you..?" Jupiter pulled out a sheet of paper and put it on the desk. "My, you are prepared."

Jupiter just smiled, she knew that if she didn't have this stuff done that her sister would never let her hear the end of it. 'Well, maybe not, but she wouldn't have let me come if it wasn't done ahead of time.'

"Everything looks in order, so welcome to the guild, Miss Jupiter." The person smiled before typing some information into the computer. A few moments later, the person handed Jupiter a registration card. "There you go, that will let everyone know that you're part of the guild now." The person pointed to the board behind Jupiter. "There's quests of different types up there. Just pick some and then go off to do them."

"Alright! Thanks!" Jupiter smiled and went over to the board after putting her guild card away. "Let's see... Dogoos and boxbirds running around in the safe zone of Virtua Forest? I guess I can do those." Nodding, she chose those quests and walked back to the desk. "I have a question." The attendant nodded. "What's up with the monster infestations?"

"Oh those? They aren't much, mostly just some annoyances. If it got to be a true infestation, the military or the CPU would take care of them. But we try to let adventurers deal with the monsters first before making such a request because otherwise we'd all be out of work." The attendant laughed softly.

"Oh, that makes sense." Jupiter nodded. "So nothing ever gets to the point of being over-run?"

"Nope."

"Okay, thank you!" Jupiter waved and ran out the door. "...Now let's see, where do I go from here?"

(-)

It was more than thirty minutes later when Jupiter finally found her way to Virtua Forest. "I can't believe I got lost again!" She yelled in despair. It took her pulling up her map to find her way out of the city and then to find her way to the forest. "Oh well, time to get to work!" She smiled and looked at the requests. 'At least they're in the same area.'

(-)

As she walked through the forest, Jupiter couldn't help but notice how beautiful everything was. The lush grass, the trees in full bloom, the flowing river. "Yee! This is awesome!" She squealed and jumped up and down in happiness.

Smiling at everything, she pulled out her camera and took some pictures. 'Maybe sis would like to see this place?' Sure, Nepgear probably came out here often enough, but she still wanted to share some images with her sister.

"Dog...goo!"

"Huh?" Jupiter had a confused look on her face as several dogoos suddenly appeared before her. "Oh, I do need to kill these things, don't I?" She rubbed the back of her head and giggled before getting serious and holding her hands in front of her. "Well then, guess I can't really waste time, huh?" Focusing her energy, two broadswords appeared, one in each hand. Both were simple bladed weapons and silver in color. Grinning as she swung them around a bit, Jupiter had a gleam enter her eyes as she looked at the dogoos. "My first mission against actual monsters? I can't wait! I hope you're more worthy than the simulations my sister puts me through at home!"

Rushing forward with a yell, she slashed at the first dogoo in her way. "Let's have some fun!"

(-)

Back at the Basilicom, Nepgear sighed softly and wondered how her sister was doing.

"Nepgear..." Histoire spoke up softly, causing the CPU to look at her. "I know you're worried about Jupiter, but she'll be fine, she is your sister after all."

Nepgear nodded and let out a soft sigh. "I know, but I can't help but worry."

"Why don't you just relax?" Histoire asked her softly. "Instead of worrying about her, why not believe in her and think of a way to welcome her back when she gets home later?"

"Welcome her home..? ...What do you suggest?"

"Why not cook her something?" Histoire suggested, knowing that Nepgear was pretty good at cooking, even if she didn't have much time for it.

Nepgear was silent for a few minutes as she looked at her desk before sighing. "Could you finish up the paperwork for today?"

"Of course." Histoire answered as Nepgear left. "...Good luck."

(-)

Meanwhile...

"Hiyah!" Jupiter let out a yell as she spun around, drawing in three boxbirds and two dogoos and sending them flying into trees, rocks and fence posts, causing them to explode into data. "Hee!" She grinned, her body and weapons covered in goop. "That was fun!"

Sure, it wasn't as hard as her sister's training simulations, but beating up real monsters was way better than dealing with some virtual reality stuff any day.

Pulling up her HUD, Jupiter smiled. There was still plenty of time before she had to get back home and she had just completed her quests. "That's the last of the monsters I need to kill." She put her HUD away and turned around. "Awesome, now then..." She blinked and looked around. "Crap! I got so into chasing those dogoos and boxbirds that I got lost again!"

Groaning in dismay, she pulled up her map again and started to follow it out of the forest. "I am so glad that I don't need to go around screaming "where on Gamindustri am I now" and hope someone finds me."

(-)

After getting back to the city and turning the quests in at the guild, Jupiter found herself wandering around the city and taking in the sights. 'At least this time I have some idea of where I am.' She thought to herself.

Not paying attention to where she was, nor caring where she went, Jupiter continued to wander the streets until she noticed that the colors around her started to get deeper and more purple than she was used to. "Huh?" She blinked as she saw a park next to her. "What's this place?" As she walked into the park, she noticed the amount of shrubs and trees with purple flowers or leaves took her by surprise. "So pretty..."

As she walked through the park, she followed the path and just looked around in awe. "It's so..." Jupiter trailed off as she got to the center of the small park. She was silent as she saw a statue in front of her. "Who?" It was a statue of a tall, imposing woman in a body suit, her hair was done up in twin braided ponytails and she had a katana held in front of her pointing at the ground with both hands over the hilt.

Jupiter stared at the statue, just staring at it in awe. "Who..."

"That was Lady Purple Heart." A voice spoke up, and Jupiter spun to see Falcom behind her. "Hi, it's been awhile since I saw her, but I can't ever forget what she looked like." The older woman smiled and waved at Jupiter.

"But didn't you say that this is the first time you've been in Planeptune?"

Falcom blinked before laughing softly. "Ah! I meant that it's been a long time since I've been back. I met Lady Purple Heart back when I was a kid. It's been a few years since I was back in Planeptune though."

"Oh." Jupiter nodded. "So, um, Purple Heart?" She looked at the statue in confusion. "Was she a CPU?"

"The previous CPU of Planeptune." Falcom said as she looked at the statue. "Lady Lilac Heart had this park and statue made in her honor."

Jupiter couldn't say anything to that as she looked at the statue. 'Sis had this made?'

The two stood there quietly, just looking at the statue.

(-)

It was starting to get dark when Jupiter made her way back into the Basilicom. "I'm home!" She called out as she got to the residential part of the Basilicom.

"Welcome back." She heard Nepgear's voice and ran towards the kitchen, gawking as she saw her sister cooking food. "How was your first day doing quests?"

"Pretty easy. The training simulations you made me go through were way harder. Other than getting lost a couple of times." Jupiter giggled softly. "So what are you making?"

"Nothing much." Nepgear said as she looked at it. "Stew, really. Thought you'd be hungry."

"Thanks sis." Jupiter hugged her. "You're awesome."

Nepgear didn't say anything as she continued to make the stew.

Still, her sister had made it back alive and seemingly unhurt, so that was a plus. Looking at her and seeing her excited face, Nepgear almost smiled.

Almost.

Deep down, she felt like a failure for multiple reasons. 'I'm doing the right thing, right? I've done the right thing, right? Someone tell me, I don't know anymore.'

(-)

One week later...

Nepgear and Jupiter were in the training room that was set up at the Basilicom, Nepgear had a wooden sword in her hand while Jupiter had two wooden swords in her hand. "Okay Jupiter, what do you do in this situation?" Nepgear asked as she parried an over-head strike from her sister. "There's a group of monsters in one area of the country attacking some small towns and farms while a really strong enemy is destroying another part of the country."

"Is the strong enemy an immediate threat to people?" Jupiter asked as she spun around in an attack, only to have Nepgear deflect it and send her flying away before landing on her back.

"There is a carnival happening in the area the strong enemy is at and there are many people there." Nepgear answered as she stood still and waited for Jupiter to recover.

Jupiter frowned as she thought about it. "I suppose it depends. If I had to choose one over the other, I'd go to the one I can get to first." Nepgear nodded at her. "But if they're the same distance away, I'd probably go for the strong enemy myself while sending the military to deal with the group of monsters. If you're there and I'm there, then I'd take the group of monsters while you took the strong enemy"

"What if it's a large group of monsters and the military's busy elsewhere?" Nepgear asked as she rushed in and slashed downwards, causing Jupiter to raise her swords above her in an X shape to block the attack. "And what if you're the only one available?"

"If I'm the only one available..." Jupiter trailed off, unsure how to answer. "If I had to guess, I'd say I'd rather go after the strong enemy while having adventurers go after the group of monsters."

"What if you're the only one who can do anything?"

Jupiter didn't answer for awhile as she traded blows with her sister. "I... I don't know."

"Sometimes there's no real answer." Nepgear said softly. "The best you can do is save as much as you can. I would probably deal with the group of monsters first as there's more of them and the damage and injuries they can cause is potentially much larger than what a single enemy can do." Jupiter nodded as she ducked down to take a slash at her sister's legs, only for Nepgear to jump over her. "Of course, if that enemy is a CPU, you should prioritize the CPU over the monsters."

Jupiter frowned at that. "Hey sis?" She turned to face her sister, who looked at her in confusion. "Can you tell me about the other CPUs? You know them, right?"

Nepgear nodded and sighed softly. "I'm not an unbiased source, I'm not their friend, ally or comrade, so keep that in mind."

"But that's why I want to know, what do you know about them?"

Cupping her chin, Nepgear nodded. "You know what they look like, right?" Jupiter nodded. "I'll start with White Heart. She's a rude, ill-tempered brute who has so much strength and durability that it's not funny." Nepgear sighed softly at Jupiter's dumbfounded look. "Don't ask me how she's a CPU. Anyway, she uses an ax to fight, she's very quick to anger, she yells at her allies... Oh, and whatever you do, if you face her in a fight, never, ever make a comment about the fact that she's flat-chested." Nepgear shrugged at Jupiter's dumbfounded look. "She's very sensitive about the fact that she's the oldest CPU but she has no breasts."

"...That's weird."

"Indeed. Next is Black Heart," Nepgear sighed as she thought about that CPU. Of all the CPUs, Black Heart had tried to make contact with her the most over the years, not that Nepgear bothered reading any of the letters that Black Heart sent. "She's an incredibly vain, arrogant CPU that cares only for how elegant she looks in battle. If she has the choice between winning or looking good, she'll take looking good every time. She's ruthless in her mockery of her opponents, though her ego gets the best of her sometimes. She has no problem laughing at you while you struggle to get up, even if you're not dead yet."

Jupiter grimaced, that CPU sounded horrible.

"Finally, Green Heart," Nepgear bit her lip lightly. "She's someone who puts up a friendly facade, but when she fights, she's cruel, heartless and will laugh at you while skewering your guts with her spear."

Jupiter gulped at hearing that. "That... That's horrible."

"Yes. She's also incredibly vain and overly proud of her breasts." Nepgear shrugged at Jupiter's flummoxed look. "Don't ask me why, she likes to comment on how her breasts sing or how they're filled with experience or some other nonsense. One of the fastest ways to anger her is to say bad things about her boobs."

"I...I see." Jupiter nodded, not really understanding how those three could be CPUs. "If... If I met them, how should I..?"

Nepgear gave her a confused look. "Well, if you had to meet any of the CPUs and they didn't know you were an enemy CPU, just be polite. As much as I detest them, they are still Goddesses and so long as they think you're human, they won't cause you harm." Jupiter looked at her in confusion and Nepgear sighed. "They would lose followers if it got out that they were harming humans, so if you met them in your human form, just be polite, try not to anger them and don't let them touch you if you can help it." Privately Nepgear wondered how their younger sisters would turn out, with those three CPUs as their role models, she didn't have much hope for the three Candidates.

Jupiter nodded at that. "Got it. Wanna continue? Don't you have..."

"Histoire's covering for me today." Nepgear answered as she held up her sword. "I haven't spent enough time with you, I thought I would spend some time with you and train you today." Jupiter's eyes lit up and Nepgear felt the corners of her mouth tugging upwards. "...Jupiter, when we're done here, do you want to..."

"Nepgear!" Histoire flew into the room, causing the CPU to give her a slightly annoyed look. "I apologize, but there was a massive problem in one of the factories over in the Nyghts district and some of the robots have gone out of control and some workers got badly hurt."

Nepgear sighed, and here she was planning on actually asking her sister to play some games together. "How bad is it, Histoire?"

"Bad enough that if it's not dealt with soon it could severely hamper productivity not only in the factory but elsewhere as well." The book fairy said, causing Nepgear to get surrounded in light as she transformed.

"Jupiter," Lilac Heart looked at her sister, "I apologize, I wanted to spend more time with you today."

"It's okay, sis." Jupiter smiled softly. "Go, you need to make sure everyone's safe." Nepgear nodded and flew out, followed by Histoire, who was telling her the details of what happened. After Nepgear left, Jupiter sighed and sat down, a sad look crossed her face. "I want to help though." She knew her sister wouldn't let her go, even if she could transform. "Be safe, please?"

(-)

"Captain!" Lilac Heart said as she got to the factory in question. It wasn't hard to find, seeing as it was flashing red, blue and purple for no reason. "What's going on?"

"Lady Lilac Heart!" The captain saluted her. "We're not entirely sure, reports are sketchy about how it started."

"Very well, I'll go inside myself." Nepgear said and flew in through one of the windows. Hovering just over the ground and ignoring the glass shards that were poking her, she looked around and idly wiped a glass shard that was on her shoulder off. "Now then, what's going on?"

"Oh! Help me!" A voice that she didn't recognize called out, causing Nepgear to fly towards it in a flash.

"...A big, black mouse?" Nepgear asked herself as she watched a robot worker try to squish the mouse.

"CHU! HELP!" The mouse screamed out as the robot stepped on it. "I don't want to die! I'm sorry for all that I did and..." The mouse trailed off as the machine that was stepping on it was blown off. "Chu?"

"You'll live now." Lilac Heart said, causing the mouse to suddenly let out a squeal of fright. "Are you okay?"

"Y...Yeah, I'm fine, Chu!"

Nepgear frowned softly. "Since when do mice work in factories anyway?"

"I...I'm not really a worker, Chu." The mouse gulped as Nepgear narrowed her eyes.

"Start talking, mouse." Nepgear crossed her arms over her breasts. "What happened?" The mouse trembled and Nepgear sighed at him. "If you don't tell me, I'm going to leave you for the scary robots."

"I'll talk! I'll talk!" The mouse yelled and jumped at Nepgear, hugging her leg tightly, much to the CPU's obvious disgust. "See, I'm in the business of getting information on video games early and leaks about upcoming hardware and software, so I was just trying to see what was behind the curtain, Chu."

"So you're a thief that takes information and sells it to the highest bidder then?" Nepgear narrowed her eyes. "I shouldn't have saved you." She kicked him off and turned to fly off. "Now I have to fix what you broke."

"Wait!" The mouse yelled and ran in front of Nepgear. "Aren't you the CPU? Shouldn't you show compassion?!"

"I am very compassionate, but you don't deserve any." There was a thrumming sound and the mouse gulped as Nepgear's gunblade was drawn, pointed at him and humming with power. "There's a few ways we can do this. One, you keep staying in my way and prevent me from stopping the robots and thus justifying me killing you." The mouse turned blue in the face and started to sweat heavily. "Two, you can run off, but I'll put a request at the guild to have you hunted down if you do. Three, you can stay here and hope no one finds you before I get done. Or four, you can help me stop this rampage that you seemed to have started and then you'll be doing community service to pay for all the damages you've caused." Her eyes narrowed at him. "What will it be?"

"I choose four! I choose four! And I know how to stop them! I accidentally over-charged them with electricity, so we just need to..."

Nepgear pointed behind the mouse and fired a powerful shot. The mouse turned and saw several robots with holes in their chests before they exploded. "Blow them all up." She twitched, after this, there was going to be a ton of paperwork to do. "I'll let you know something you little rat, today was one of the few days since I've become a CPU that I could take time and relax. And you ruined it for me. I've decided, you will shut up, hide and hope that I'm feeling better when I get back, okay?"

The mouse nodded and scurried off.

Nepgear narrowed her eyes and flew off. "To think I ever found robots fascinating." She sighed and started to smash the robots of the factory. "Today was my day to spend with my sister! I was going to play games with her too!" Nepgear grumbled to herself as she cut, slashed and blew up the robots. "You'll all pay for this." She hissed, her anger seeping through her exterior easily.

(-)

Twenty minutes later...

After hearing the sounds of battle end, the mouse peeked its head out from behind a computer console and gulped at the massive destruction all over the place. "Chu, well, I should get going." Turning, the mouse prepared to leave but felt something grab its tail and lift it up. "Chu?"

"You run, you die." Nepgear said softly, causing the mouse to gulp. "Now then, rat, you're going to prison, you'll spend time in there. And you should be thankful that I'm willing to be this nice to you."

The mouse nodded as Nepgear flew out of the factory while carrying him out. "Captain." Nepgear said as she got out. "This is the reason behind the problems inside." She tossed the mouse to the captain. "Have him put into lockup for now."

"Yes, Lady Lilac Heart."

Nepgear nodded and mentally sighed as she saw the reporters gathering. After letting them get set up fully, she waited for the questions to roll in. "Roughly half an hour ago I received word that there was a malfunction in the factory here. Coming to investigate, I discovered that there was an information thief that had been sneaking around and causing problems. The thief has been apprehended and the problems dealt with."

"Lady Lilac Heart, what will happen with the factory now?" One of the reporters asked.

"The Basilicom will reimburse the owners for the damages that were caused and will replace what was broken." Nepgear answered. "It is not right that the citizens should suffer when criminals cause problems that force the CPU to take violent actions."

After answering some more questions, Nepgear took off into the sky towards the Basilicom. "Sorry, Jupiter." She whispered to herself. "I really did want to spend more time with you too."

(-)

Two weeks later...

"Are you sure it's a good idea, Jupiter?" Histoire asked the young candidate, who shrugged at her. "That's not a good answer."

"Histoire, you said it yourself, I need to start resonating with the people." Jupiter answered her. "But it's not like they know I'm the CPU Candidate, right? Sis won't let that information out at all. And I've been doing quests, but I want to know more about what's out there."

Histoire nodded and sighed. "I know, I just feel bad about you doing Goddess work without anyone knowing who you are."

"Hey, it's fine." Jupiter adjusted her outfit and check it for anything out of place. "You have my travel papers, right?"

"Yes, right here." Histoire pulled out some papers, which were comically over-sized compared to her tiny body. "Just be careful."

"I will." Jupiter nodded as she put the papers away. "Besides, sis already cleared me to go traveling." She pulled out a duffel bag full of clothes and smiled at Histoire.

"Yes, but only across Planeptune." Histoire admonished Jupiter. "If she finds out..."

"Which is why you're not going to tell her." Jupiter said softly. "Anyway, I'm going to go say goodbye." She walked off, leaving Histoire alone.

"Good luck, Jupiter." Histoire hoped that the CPU Candidate could see Gamindustri and bring information back to her sister. What she really hoped for, though, was Jupiter to make it back safely. 'If anything happens to her...'

Histoire knew Nepgear cared about Jupiter a lot and she also knew that if something happened to Nepgear's younger sister that the CPU wouldn't be able to handle it. "And here I am keeping secrets from her." She just hoped that when the truth came out that Nepgear would forgive her for what she did, if not her then at least Jupiter.

(-)

"Don't forget to call or text every day." Nepgear said to Jupiter, who nodded at her. "Good luck out there."

"Jeez, sis..." Jupiter rubbed the back of her head. "I'm going to be gone for a couple of weeks, a month at most, while traveling around Planeptune. I won't get lost this time!" And the whole of Gamindustri, but she knew Nepgear wouldn't approve of that. "I promise, I'll keep everything under wraps."

Nepgear nodded and watched as Jupiter left. Sighing softly, she turned and walked towards the kitchen, only stopping as as she saw Histoire in there. "Oh, I didn't know you were here."

"Jupiter left, huh?" Histoire asked, knowing the answer. "You can't keep her cooped up forever, Nepgear. Planeptune needs her to explore and know her own nation." She sighed softly when Nepgear didn't respond. "Nepgear, I... I wanted to apologize. For everything I did..."

"You did what you had to do." Nepgear said softly and walked past her into the kitchen. "Nothing more, nothing less. Planeptune's doing well, isn't it?"

"But I should have..."

"Regardless of how one feels, one must put their nation and their people ahead of their own self interests." Nepgear told her, causing Histoire to wince at the memory of that lesson. "You taught me that."

"Nepgear... Please..." Histoire sighed softly. "It's... It's okay if you hate me, I would understand."

"A CPU who puts their emotions and feelings in front of logic and reasoning is a failure." Nepgear looked at her sharply. "Regardless of how I feel, you did the only logical thing."

"You aren't a machine, Nepgear." Histoire said softly.

"Things would be easier if I was one, I think." Nepgear answered her. "I used to find machines interesting. I wonder what it would have been like to work on them. If I had any spare time that is."

Histoire trembled and silently floated out of the room. Those words felt like Nepgear had taken a flaming dagger and stabbed it into her chest before twisting.

"Histoire," she heard Nepgear's voice from behind her. Turning, she saw the CPU looking at her with somewhat soft eyes. "Forgive me, I went too far."

"No..." Histoire shook her head. "I deserved that."

"Again, you did what was needed, I shouldn't have said that." Nepgear said before popping back into the kitchen.

"Even after all this time, you are still so kind." Histoire said softly. "I just wish that your kind heart could heal."

(-)

"So your cute little sister left, huh?" Anonydeath asked Nepgear. "Oh honey, you're finally letting her grow." Seeing Nepgear's disgruntled look, he sighed. "You need to relax, she's shown to be really good on all those quests, hasn't she?"

"Yes, but that doesn't make things easy for me." Nepgear huffed. "Regardless, I came here for an update report."

"Ah..." Anonydeath sounded rather displeased. "Sorry to say, but every single official, unofficial and even the hidden channels that I've hacked into have shown nothing about continued aggression, troop build up or movement." Pushing a button his keyboard, several of the monitors changed and showed reports from the three other nations. "There are even groups out there, some sort of secretive Order in Lastation being the most prominent, that are causing problems. Well, the Order WAS causing problems." Anonydeath started to giggle softly. "A little anonymous phone call, a little false information given to them and the whole thing exploded like an egg in a microwave."

"So you helped Noire out?" Nepgear asked, getting a nod from Anonydeath. "I almost wish you hadn't and... Why are there images of myself and Noire on your computer with us making out?"

"Huh?!" Anonydeath looked at the pictures in question. "Oh dear! Someone re-chirped some naughty images into my timeline!"

"For a pure maiden, you have an awfully large amounts of naked images of Noire."

"I can't help it!" Anonydeath protested and squirmed in his seat as he tried to ignore the flat stare Nepgear was giving him. "Little Noire is just so cute and she has this really awesome cosplay hobby. Speaking of hobbies, do you have one?" Anonydeath looked at her. "The CPU of Lowee likes to write books, she's not the best, but at least it's something she does. And the CPU of Leanbox loves to play games. But you, I don't..."

"I have work." Nepgear answered him. "When I'm not working or doing quests, I'm either sleeping, eating or visiting you for some strange reason."

"But you barely show up and only for a few minutes..." Anonydeath trailed off as he realized something. "Honey, what DO you do for fun? Surely you at least play games to unwind after work. Even Little Noire, who's such a work-a-holic that she sometimes ignores her younger sister, takes time to play some games every day."

"I wake up at six in the morning and stay up until midnight every day, Anonydeath, unless I pull all-nighters, then I don't sleep for days on end." Nepgear told him. "In the time I've been a CPU, I've only taken the time to play a few games. I think the last game I played was... Hmm... That Musou game, what was it again? Oh yes, the Planeptune Mascot Musou game." She nodded to him. "I think I even got to play thirty minutes before being dragged off to get the paperwork caught up."

"...Honey, that game came out over nine years ago." Nepgear gave him a confused look and he typed some information into his computer and a wiki entry on the Planeptune Musou Mascot game came out.

"...Wow, it's been nine years, huh?" She tilted her head. "There was a sequel?"

"Three sequels." Anonydeath answered her.

"Neat." Nepgear nodded and turned to walk away. "Well, I have to get back to work, keep me informed, Anonydeath."

"Honey, you can call me Anny if you want to." He sighed as she just walked off. "You really are a hard nut to crack."

For some reason, the fact that Nepgear had hardly played any games in almost her entire time as a CPU bothered him in ways he couldn't understand.

(-)

Jupiter smiled at the guard at the check-in station.

"Well, everything checks out." The guard nodded. "Do you have an estimated time away from Planeptune, miss Jupiter?"

She shook her head. "Nothing specific, but somewhere from two weeks to a month."

The guard nodded and stamped the papers after typing some information into the computer. "Well, just be careful out there."

Jupiter nodded and got her paperwork before leaving the station. "Lastation, here I come."

* * *

Boy, this was a long chapter! Probably the longest one of the story.

Time to go to the other nations now to see how they are, and yes, Jupiter's taking over as the lead character for a few chapters now.

After all, she needs character development.

Oh, what the heck, it's time for the first Nepstation!

* * *

"Welcome to Nepstation! With your hosts..."

"Jupiter."

"And Falcom."

"So what's going on here, Falcom?"

"Oh, this is just a non-canon entry where we chat about what happened before and what's happening next."

"Oh. This story is pretty depressing so far."

"Well, what do you expect with your sister suffering the way she is?"

"Good point. Hey! If there's someone named Neptune out there, can you come here and help my sister out!?"

"Ah, I don't know if yelling will do you any good. Maybe if MAGES. was around you could ask her for some help? Anyway, want to do a preview?"

"Right! I'm heading to the other nations, I want to see how the rest of Gamindustri is. Sis is going to kill me if she finds out."

"I'm sure the worst she'll do is give you a spanking."

"And for some reason I'm sure that someone is going to draw a lewd image of sis doing that to me now."

"Probably. Anyway, that's all for Nepstation. This is Falcom..."

"And Jupiter!"

"Signing off!"


	7. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

* * *

"Blanc... Blanc..."

A familiar voice, one she heard plenty of times in the past ten years, suddenly spoke up. Turning, Blanc saw Purple Heart standing behind her. "What are you doing here? You're awfully persistent for someone who's dead."

"Oh Blanc..." Purple Heart gave her a gentle smile. "You didn't do what I asked you to do yet."

"Tsk!" Blanc sneered at the other CPU. "Your sister's a total brat! You think she'd be able to forgive us."

"Oh but Blanny..." Purple Heart said softly. "How can you expect her to forgive you when you won't forgive yourself?" She walked up to Blanc and gently cupped the short CPU's face. "You also haven't tried to be kind to her."

Blanc growled at Purple Heart. "What? You really expect me to be nice to someone who's not even willing to see us? Who's basically made Planeptune totally isolated from the rest of Gamindustri? She's not you!"

"Does it bother you?" Purple Heart asked her. "That I'm not here?"

"Of course it does!" Blanc screamed at the dead CPU. "You were my rival! You were the one I wanted to surpass on my own skills! You were the one I wanted to prove I was better than! Noire! Vert! Who cares about them?! You were the best one. Why did you have to die?!"

"I think that ax to my spine and Vert's spear through my back and through my heart and Noire's sword in my gut had something to do with it."

"Be serious!" Blanc yelled, her body trembling. "I hate this. I hated you! But this world's been so... Damn depressing since you died!"

"Well, it's not like I can give you any answers, I'm dead. Although..." Purple Heart trailed off. "I do have an idea of how you can fix everything."

"...How?"

A smile that didn't belong on Purple Heart's face appeared and Blanc's eyes widened as she felt a sharp pain in her chest. Looking down, she saw Purple Heart's katana buried deep into her. "You can DIE for me."

(-)

"NO!" Blanc yelled as she shot up in bed, her eyes wide as she panted to try and get her breathing under control. Patting herself down, she was relieved that she didn't have a sword wound in her chest. "That... That fucking dream again." Trembling, she pulled her knees up to her chest and buried her head against them, shivering as she tried to stop sweating. "Dammit... Why? Why did we allow ourselves to get manipulated?"

She knew no answers were forthcoming.

She also knew no one would be up at this time of the morning.

Blanc really hoped Rom or Ram didn't wake up early, because if they saw her crying she didn't know what she would do.

(-)

In Lastation...

Jupiter groaned as she woke up in a small motel in Lastation. "These beds aren't that comfortable." She knew it wasn't fair to compare them to what she had at the Basilicom, but she couldn't help but make that comparison. "Oh well, no one said traveling was supposed to be luxurious!" Stretching, she got up and ran to the shower. "I'll just do some sight-seeing around the city and then tomorrow I'll go around and visit other places."

She didn't know what to expect, she had traveled around the city somewhat yesterday and it looked... Really formal and rigid for some reason. "This city reminds me of sis." Jupiter chuckled. Even Planeptune was more relaxed than this, and that was with Nepgear as the CPU!

Still, some things were interesting at least. She had gotten to see the newest console Lastation had put out and thought the design was pretty neat, though the specs weren't too great in her opinion. 'Sis's console is way more advanced.'

"Oh well, it's the games that matter more than the specs anyway." Jupiter grinned brightly before getting into the shower. "I'll have to try those demos out and see how they are."

(-)

After showering and changing, Jupiter left the motel and started to wander around the city. "Certainly is neat. Now where's that game store?" She asked herself while navigating through the crowds.

"Mraw!" A white cat caught Jupiter's attention.

"Huh?" The purple-haired girl blinked as she looked down. "Hey little kitty."

The cat meowed and ran off, causing Jupiter's eyes to go white and blank in shock. "H...Hey! Come back! I just want to pet you!" She ran after the cat, agitating it and causing it to run away faster.

It was too bad that Jupiter was focused on the cat, had she looked around, she would have seen the game store she was looking for.

"Huh?" A dark haired girl with a red outfit and a K on her chest blinked in surprise. "Who was that?" Her eyes widened in shock. "Ah! She's chasing my kitty!" She ran after the girl who was chasing her cat.

(-)

"Got'cha!" Jupiter pounced as she snuck up on the cat and grabbed it as it tried to climb a tree. "Man, you were stubborn."

"Oh no! My kitty!" A cute voice was heard and Jupiter blinked as she turned to see a girl wearing a red outfit with a K on her chest.

"Oh, this is yours?" Jupiter smiled and handed the cat over. "OWW!" She yelled as the cat sliced her hand up as it jumped away.

"Bad Blanc!" The girl pouted at the cat as she picked it up and held it. "Just because she scared you doesn't mean you should be mean to her!"

"Sorry about that." Jupiter giggled softly. "I just don't see too many cats and I just wanted to pet it." She took a step forward to try and pet the cat.

"HISS!" The cat glared at Jupiter.

"Okay, okay!" Jupiter pouted and backed off. "Sheesh, fine." Turning she walked away.

"Hey! Wait!" The girl called out. "I'm K-Sha, what's your name?"

"Jupiter." The CPU Candidate waved at the girl and walked off.

"She's cute, but not as lovely as Noire is." K-Sha sighed softly. "If only I could find a way to get close to her, maybe then I can get her to notice me and then when that happens... KYA!" She squealed in delight and dropped her cat while putting her hands on her cheeks and squirming in place.

(-)

Jupiter looked at her hand and was thankful that shares accelerated healing on minor injuries, because otherwise she'd probably have to see a doctor and get it looked at. "So where in Gamindustri am I now?" She asked no one in particular and blinked as she had a sudden urge to get a backpack and a bandanna and wear both for no reason. She had checked her map on her HUD and grimaced at the fact that there was no data available. 'This is what I get for not having any data on any of the other nations.' She mentally groused.

Turning a corner, she ran into someone, causing both of them to fall to the ground. "Oooof! That felt like ten tulips headbutting me at once." Jupiter grumbled and looked at who she ran into.

The first thing she noticed was the girl had black hair, a fair complexion, a black skirt that went up to her small chest, two long arm sleeves and white panties. The only reason Jupiter noticed that was because the girl's skirt had fluttered up after she fell down.

"EEK!" The girl quickly put her hands in front of her skirt, her face red. "You didn't see anything, did you?" She gave Jupiter an angry look.

"See what?" Jupiter asked in confusion. "Were you hiding a weapon? Do you have an embarrassing birthmark? Are you a crossdresser?"

"What?! NO!" The girl, who had red eyes Jupiter noted, stood up in a hurry, her face full of anger and her cheeks flushed. "Why would you say that?!"

"Um, well, you were acting like you were hiding something." Jupiter said as she stood up and dusted her shirt jersey off. "So I don't know, I mean, there's lots of anime and games with men who look like really pretty women."

"...Fair point." The girl muttered in annoyance. "I'm sorry, I don't think I've ever seen you before. My name's Uni."

"Ah!" Jupiter smiled at her. "Sorry, I'm Jupiter, and probably not. I'm just traveling around Gamindustri. I got into Lastation yesterday."

Uni nodded, she supposed there were people like that, after all there was that adventurer Falcom who popped up from time to time and published her adventure logs as a novel series. Any time she published something that involved Planeptune the books instantly sold out as so few people had any idea what life was like in the isolated nation.

Of course, there was only one book ever published about Planeptune because Falcom noted how frustratingly difficult it was to get into the nation unless one wanted to go over the one unguarded section of Planeptune's border and risk super high level enemies attacking them.

When the weakest enemies were Dogoos and Tulips that were stronger than the average Fenrir, it made sense not to have much security covering that area.

"Well, that's cool. Want me to show you around Lastation?" Uni smiled at the other girl. Other than Rom and Ram, she hadn't met too many people around her age that wanted to hang around. Too many people were either overly polite or kept their distance since they knew who she was.

"Sure." Jupiter smiled at her.

(-)

"Oh so that's where the game store was." Jupiter giggled softly as she and Uni walked into the building. "I swear, I must be blind, the motel I was staying in is in this area. Then again, there was that cat that ran off when I just wanted to pet it and I chased it for several blocks until it tried to climb a tree and I pounced on it."

Uni giggled softly. "Sounds like fun."

"Not really, the cat clawed me after its owner showed up." Jupiter pouted, she just wanted to pet the kitty too! "Oooh! Is that the display with all the demos on it?"

"Yep." Uni nodded as she watched Jupiter run over and pick up the controller before looking at it weirdly. "Don't you play games?"

"Not very often." Jupiter said softly as she held the controller in a way that anyone could see was awkward.

"Here, hold it like this." Uni took the controller and helped Jupiter hold it more naturally.

"Thanks." Jupiter smiled and went to play games.

As she watched the purple haired girl play the demos, Uni got the feeling that the girl, despite obviously not used to playing many games, was pretty good at them. "Are you sure you don't play many games?"

"Yep. I'm always busy so I don't get much time to play games. My sister does a lot of work and I try my best to help her out."

"Oh." Uni nodded, knowing how that was with her own sister. "Sounds like you have it rough."

Jupiter shrugged as she tried to play an action game and had to look at her controller to find the right buttons to climb up a ladder. "Sis tries, she's really responsible but everyone thinks she's really cold hearted and doesn't feel any emotions. She's just really awkward I think."

The more Uni heard about Jupiter's sister, the more she was convinced that said sister was like Noire. "Really? That sounds like my sister. I'm sure she cares, but she always has trouble telling me I do a good job." Uni sighed softly. "Sometimes I think she doesn't even notice that I'm around."

"AH!" Jupiter suddenly yelled. "Where did that bird come from?! I didn't even get to the door!"

Seeing Jupiter's eyes wide and blank, Uni couldn't help but start laughing. "You just had to choose that game, huh? It's notorious for being really difficult."

"I mean, with a name like Dead Souls I was expecting it to be a challenge, but birds?! Come on!" Jupiter groused and put the controller down. "Guess I'm not very good."

"Well, you said it yourself, you don't play many games. You can't expect to be good without practice." Uni giggled some more at Jupiter's distraught look. "If you want, there's some other games you could try."

"Ah, it's fine, I'll probably get tired if I stand on my feet for too long without moving." Jupiter smiled. "I'll have to try another time."

"Well, you're never going to get good if you just give up." Uni gave her a stern look. "At least try this one. It's based on one of Lowee's signature franchises."

"I suppose I can try it." Jupiter said as she picked up the controller again and started to move the character around on screen. "Man, this game looks so surreal. Oh! Neat! I got a gun! Now I can shoot through those blocks!"

Uni watched, and pointed out things that Jupiter would have missed, the other girl play for the next hour.

"Aww! The demo's over?!" Jupiter pouted and put the controller down again. "That was so much fun though! I'll have to see about getting this game!"

"Really?" Uni asked as she looked at the girl's raw excitement. "A lot of people were put off by how dark it was."

"Yeah, but it was so much fun! It was cool to go down all sorts of paths and be like "okay, so how do I get up to that item" and then come back later with the ability to jump really high and get the item. That was so cool!" She squealed and squirmed in place.

Uni sweat-dropped at hearing that. "Well... I guess so long as you had fun." Sighing softly, the young girl gave Jupiter an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, but I need to go."

"Huh?" Jupiter gave her a confused look.

"Well, there were reports of a mass dogoo infestation at one of the resorts so I was asked to go take care of it."

Jupiter tilted her head. "Isn't that something that the CPU should do if the guild can't do it?"

Uni gave her a smile. "Well, yeah. I am the CPU Candidate of Lastation after all. If I can't handle it I'm not qualified to become the next CPU."

Jupiter's eyes widened. "Woah! You're a CPU Candidate t..." She slapped her hand over her mouth and bent over in shock. 'Shoot! Almost blew my cover! Sis would KILL me if someone found out I was Planeptune's CPU Candidate.'

"You okay?" Uni put her hand on Jupiter's back as she looked at the girl in shock.

"Yeah, just felt like I needed to sneeze." Jupiter nodded at her and straightened up. "But wow! You're the CPU Candidate? I wouldn't have guessed!"

Uni blushed softly. "Well, it's not like it's a secret or anything. You must really be out in the boonies if you don't know that."

Jupiter twitched, she wouldn't call her sister's nation "the boonies" but letting Uni know that wouldn't do her any good. "Well, why do you think I'm traveling Gamindustri?"

"Makes sense. Well, I'll be..."

"Can I come with?" Jupiter asked, causing Uni to look at her in concern. "I can fight too, besides, it'll go faster if you have someone helping you, right?"

"Sure." Uni smiled, it had been awhile since she did quests with anyone. "Just be careful, okay?"

"I always am."

(-)

A bit later...

It didn't take long with Uni leading the way for the two girls to make it to the Rebat Resort. Looking it over, Jupiter thought it was really pretty, with a hotel, lots of docks by the ocean where one could go for a quick swim or go fishing. "That's... A lot of dogoos." Jupiter's eyes were white and blank as she looked at all of them. "Why didn't they get taken care of before?"

"Well, that's what happens when no one bothers to check on this place after it got shut down for renovations." Uni pulled out her gun and did a quick check to make sure everything was right on it. "So you said you can fight, huh?"

"Yep." Jupiter nodded as twin broadswords appeared in her hands.

Uni looked at the swords and grinned at her. "Close range, huh? Do you know Cyberconnect2?" She sighed at Jupiter's confused look. "She's an adventurer I know, she uses two daggers to fight with."

"Oh, well... Never met her, no." Jupiter shook her head. "Anyway, shall we?"

"Let's," Uni nodded, grinning as fired at the nearest dogoo. "You want to take point? I'll take any that try to get you from behind."

"Sounds good to me." Jupiter smiled as she rushed in, slashing several dogoos along the way. "Come on you slimy jelly monsters! I'll turn you into smoothies!"

Uni had a look that was a mixture of confusion and amusement on her face. "Smoothies? ...I'm pretty sure that dogoo smoothies would be really slimy and gross." As she blasted a few more, she couldn't help but think about that. "Dang it, now I want a smoothie!"

(-)

Thirty minutes later...

"Useless! Useless! Useless!" Jupiter chanted like a mantra as she used her twin swords and sliced through several dogoos while Uni shot down more than a dozen others. "Wow, you weren't kidding about being over-run by dogoos. I've never seen so many!" She panted and wiped the sweat off her forehead. "At least this place is done now."

"Like I said, this place was shut down for renovations. The dogoos moved in while they were working on the place." Uni answered as she fired a few shots at the last remaining dogoos.

"Why don't you have the military deal with these?" Jupiter asked, confusion in her voice. "I'm sure that your country could spare a small squadron to deal with them since there was so many dogoos here." That's how it worked in Planeptune after all.

Uni looked at her in confusion. "Huh? Why? There's not enough of a military in Lastation to do stuff like this." She sighed at the flabbergasted look Jupiter gave her. "Neither Lastation, Lowee nor Leanbox has a large standing military. We have self-defense forces to make sure that main pathways are clear of monsters and to hold the fort down until either I or my sister gets there to deal with the problem personally if it's a really strong monster or if there's a lot of them."

"Bu...Bu...But what about the war?!" Jupiter waved her arms up and down in surprise.

"War?" Uni frowned at hearing that. "What war? Unless you're talking about the Console Wars, but those ended before I was born." She sighed at Jupiter's utterly flummoxed look. "Seriously, you really are out of date if you don't know that the war ended awhile ago."

"It ended?" Jupiter whispered to herself softly. 'That doesn't make sense, sis told me it was still ongoing and even Histoire said that there was just a ceasefire thanks to that treaty.' The conference really made her think that the war had ended, but that could have easily have been a ruse to make everyone lower their guard. "I... See."

Uni frowned softly, it looked like this girl really had no clue about the war ending. "You know..." She trailed off. "If you don't think the war ended, I could take you to Lowee and Leanbox." Jupiter looked up at her, her eyes sparkling in joy and Uni sweat-dropped. "Sheesh, excitable, aren't you?" Jupiter blushed heavily. "But yeah, you'll see that the other nations are in the same boat as Lastation is. None of us have a strong standing military."

"But aren't you worried that Planeptune might decide to invade?" Jupiter asked, causing Uni to shake her head. "Why not?"

"Because at the end of the war, the CPU of Planeptune suddenly made it extremely isolated." Uni shook her head. "I don't know all the details myself, but I just know that since that policy was enacted Planeptune has never made any aggressive maneuvers towards the other nations."

"But, what if..."

Uni shrugged at Jupiter's question. "I don't know, but I've talked to people who survived the Console Wars, they say that this is better than worrying if the CPUs from the other nations decided that today was a good day to invade and try to destroy your nation. I mean, sure, it sucks that Planeptune won't allow anyone in their country, but at least they aren't aggressive."

Jupiter was silent. If Uni knew just how large Planeptune's military really was, she wouldn't be saying that. The official numbers weren't known to most people, in fact, Jupiter suspected that only Nepgear, Histoire and a few other people knew the exact numbers.

Jupiter didn't even know the exact numbers, but she knew it was fairly large from what she had gleamed from doing paperwork for Nepgear when she was out.

"If you don't believe me, let's go to Lowee and Leanbox." Uni smiled at her. "I'll just report on what happened and then we can go."

Jupiter nodded slowly and wondered how much paperwork was needed to travel between the different countries. "So, anything I should know or bring with?"

"Yeah, thermal underwear since we're going to Lowee first." Uni giggled at Jupiter's confused look.

'Thermal underwear? That's what they use for border security?' She wondered what kind of crazy people lived in Lowee if that was the case.

(-)

Noire sighed as she signed some more paperwork. "Sheesh, what's with this sudden monster rise in the North?" It was a bit concerning and if it got any worse, she'd have to go deal with it herself, or ask Uni to help her. "Worst comes to worst I can call Blanc and Vert and we'll do a quick monster mash." It had been a long time since the three of them had done that. She smiled softly at the thought of letting their sisters get involved. "Why not? Uni's pretty reliable and I know Rom and Ram are good at magic support and YEEK!" She yelled as her phone started to ring. "Yikes!" Picking it up, she took a deep breath and smiled. "Hello? Ah! Uni! What are you calling for?"

_"Hey, Noire, I took care of the monsters over at the Rebat Resort. I also met someone who helped me out."_

"Really?" Noire smiled at hearing that. "Who's your new friend, Uni?"

She could FEEL her sister blushing over the phone. "_It, it's not like that, she just helped me out, that's all. Anyway, I was wondering, would it be okay if I took a day or two and went to Lowee?"_

Noire frowned in confusion. "Why do you want to go there?" She had no problem with her sister going there, she just wanted to know why.

_"Well, I wanted to show the girl I met around, since she's never been to Lastation and she said she wanted to go to Lowee."_

Noire smiled softly and leaned back in her chair. "Sure thing. You've been putting a lot of hard work in lately and it's nice you made a friend." Truth be told, Noire was worried about her sister, since she had no one to hang out with around her age. Even if her new friend couldn't relate to the stress she felt as Lastation's CPU Candidate, at least she'd have someone she could talk to and play games with.

_"Thanks, Noire. And you're reading into it too much!"_

Noire giggled at that. "Sure, sure, have fun. Oh! Before I forget, make sure to take the main transport to Lowee that leaves in a couple of hours."

_"Huh?"_ Uni's embarrassment was replaced by confusion. _"What's wrong?"_

Noire bit her lip softly. "I'm hoping it's nothing, but there's been an increase in monster activity along the border. I'll keep an eye on it."

_"Are you sure you don't..."_

"Uni," Noire interrupted her, "like I said, you've been working really hard lately, take a couple days off, relax and have fun. If I need your help, I'll give you a call, okay? Just be ready in case an emergency happens, but I want you to relax."

_"Okay. Thanks sis."_

Noire smiled as Uni ended the call. Looking at the reports on her desk, she wondered why all of this was happening. 'Are we losing our divine protection?' If that happened it would be very bad for not only their nations but Gamindustri as a whole.

(-)

"So?" Jupiter asked as Uni hung up the phone.

Uni smiled at her. "She said she was okay with it. Now we just need to report to the results of this to the guild. Oh, but we have to wait to take the transport that leaves around noon." Jupiter blinked in confusion and Uni sighed before walking away and motioning for Jupiter to follow after. "Sis is a little concerned about something, but said I shouldn't worry about it and if she needs help she'll give me a call."

Jupiter nodded at her. "Okay. So what should we do till then?"

Uni looked at her and blushed softly. "You know that talk about turning those dogoos into smoothies? Well, it made me want a smoothie."

Jupiter laughed at that. "Sure! I wouldn't mind getting one myself." An idea popped into her head. "Hey! Let's ask them to make it extra thick." Uni looked at her in confusion as Jupiter threw her arms up and wide in the air. "Then we can pretend it's a dogoo smoothie and go," Jupiter grinned as she took a deep breath and deepened her voice, "ha ha ha! Little dogoo! I have turned you into a smoothie! Now! Get in mah belly!" Jupiter patted her stomach, causing Uni to cover her mouth and double over while laughing at her. "Thank you, thank you, I'm here for the next two weeks!"

After laughing for a few more minutes, Uni straightened herself and rubbed the tears that formed in her eyes from laughing so hard. "Man, that, hee hee, was great." Seeing Jupiter's carefree smile made her smile more as well. "Come on, let's go get that smoothie."

"Yeah!" Jupiter cheered in delight as she ran off, only to stop and turn around, looking embarrassed. "Could you lead the way, I'll probably get lost."

Uni rolled her eyes and smirked. "Come on, you goof, it's this way." She ran up to Jupiter, hooked her arm under Jupiter's arm and ran off.

As they made their way through Lastation, the citizens who knew their CPU Candidate noted that she looked happier than they ever remembered her being and it made them wonder just who the other girl was.

* * *

Yeah, the other CPUs suffer as well, you know?

Just in case you were wondering, Jupiter was playing the equivalent of Dark Souls and Axiom Verge demos.

And this was the chapter where I originally decided to do the "Jupiter gets lost" running gag that started in the last chapter.


	8. Interlude 1: 10 Years Ago

Hyperdimension Neptunia belongs to Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

So some of you may be wondering "just where did Nepgear get Gehaburn anyway?"

Well, I think it's time to answer that question. Let's travel back in time ten years, shall we?

* * *

Shadows of the Heart Interlude

Standing on a rock formation in Celestia, Arfoire, a woman with light purple skin and short hair of a similar color who wore a black witch's outfit with detached sleeves and a black witch's hat on her head, sneered out at the world below. Her red eyes gleamed in delight. "Finally, after all these centuries, I'll have my revenge Gamindustri. Discard me, will you? And after I saved you from the first True Goddess, you hailed me as your hero, as your new True Goddess, but then you turned on me when the Great Calamity hit. Now I return the favor, since you decided I wasn't worth having, I pass judgment on you." Holding up her hand, she smirked as her body glowed softly. "Not as strong as I once was, but that's still more than enough to..."

"Excuse me." A soft, young, female voice spoke up from behind her. Turning, Arfoire looked on in confusion as she saw a lanky girl with long pink hair, a white sailor dress outfit, pink striped socks that went up almost to her the hem of her skirt and white sneakers look at her. The girl's eyes were red, not from being red, as Arfoire could see their color was a dark pink, but rather red from what had to be crying as the girl's face had tear streaks down her cheeks.

"Just who the heck are you?"

"I'm Nepgear, Planeptune's CPU Candidate, are you Arfoire?"

Arfoire raised an eyebrow and smirked at her. "Well, this is unusual, I didn't know that Neptune had a younger sister. My condolences, I suppose." Her voice was disinterested and insincere.

The girl trembled softly. "Tell me something, I heard that you manipulated the other CPUs into killing my sister. Is that true?"

Arfoire sighed softly before grinning. "I don't know how you heard, but it is true. I convinced Black Heart, Green Heart and White Heart that if they were to team up against Purple Heart that they could win against her and be one step closer to becoming the One True Goddess of Gamindustri. I even gave them some help, when they agreed to team up on her, I enhanced their powers with a bit of magic."

Nepgear had a sad, confused look on her face. "Why? What did Neptune do to you?"

"Who's to say?" Arfoire shrugged at her. "She didn't do anything to me personally, I suppose, but deep in my heart, the mere mention of that name is enough to make me feel anger. Probably the Akashic Record theory in action." Turning away from Nepgear, Arfoire smirked. "But either way, I needed one of those meddlesome CPUs to be gone, and since I hated Neptune, it worked out for me in the end."

Had she looked behind her she would have seen Nepgear's face looking down, her hair casting a shadow over her eyes. "I see..."

"You know, I'm confused..." Arfoire said, as if she was just realizing something. "Only a fully realized CPU can come to Celestia freely. And I shut off the road to Celestia from Lastation, Lowee and Leanbox's Basilicoms. Without a Planeptune CPU they can't use that path. So how did you get here?"

"I had hoped that I was lied to." Nepgear said softly. "I had hoped that the other CPUs weren't so stupid that they'd get manipulated into killing my OLDER SISTER!"

Arfoire spun around, only to see Nepgear looking up at her, her face etched with anger, hatred and rage. But the thing that terrified her was that the girl was now holding a purple-bladed sword in her right hand, a chilling purple aura surrounding the blade. "What is..."

"HOW DARE YOU TAKE MY SISTER FROM ME?!" Nepgear screamed and rushed forward. Arfoire pulled out her multi-bladed staff to try and block the attack, but Nepgear was near her so fast that she couldn't react.

There was a squelching sound and a tearing feeling in Arfoire's right arm. Looking down, she could only stare in horror as her arm was bleeding...

...From the elbow down...

...because that part of her arm was flying through the air and landing on the grass some distance away.

Jumping back to try and get some room to cast a spell, Arfoire found Nepgear wasn't giving her any breathing room. "You..."

"DIE!" Nepgear screamed, tears falling from her eyes as she slashed downwards, cutting Arfoire from her left shoulder down to where her right elbow used to be. Nepgear watched as Arfoire gasped and stumbled backwards. Not even giving her a chance to recover, Nepgear stabbed forward and pierced Arfoire in the stomach, before pulling upwards with a yell, causing blood to spray everywhere, coating Nepgear's hair, face, arms, legs and staining her white dress.

"To...Think..." Arfoire smiled softly as blood came out of her mouth. "That I would fall like this..." She fell to her knees and looked at Nepgear. "You..." She coughed as her body started to go cold. "Remind me of... Her... The original... True... Goddess."

Arfoire fell onto her face, a weak chuckle escaping her lips before she was silenced for good.

Nepgear sniffled and trembled. "Onee-chan... I... I avenged you."

"Yeah, you did." A new voice spoke up and Nepgear looked up to see the person in question. "I told you I wasn't lying."

Nepgear sniffled. "I'm sorry for doubting you, Croire." She looked at the dark-skinned blonde tome as she hovered there. "Now what?"

Croire shrugged. "That depends. It's up to you and, huh?" Croire looked behind Nepgear, her eyes widening. "Uh, visitors."

Nepgear slowly turned and saw Black Heart, Green Heart and White Heart flying towards her. The three stopped as they saw Nepgear, covered in blood, holding a bloody, glowing sword that radiated malice and her face, the haunted, chilling, sad and hate-filled look on her face made the three CPUs flinch visibly. "You..." She whispered, all the hatred she was feeling was bubbling up and over. Tightening her grip on Gehaburn, she turned to face them fully and was about to attack when an image of Neptune appeared in front of her. "Nep...tune?" She whispered, seeing her sister standing in front of her, a desperate, sad and pleading look on her face as she held her hands wide and apart while shaking her head negatively.

Trembling, Nepgear turned, grabbed Croire and ran, glad the other CPUs weren't chasing after her. "Can you take me back?"

"Sure." Croire nodded and waited until Nepgear jumped off the edge of Celestia before opening a portal under them, causing them to disappear to the Planeptune Basilicom.

A few moments later Nepgear and Croire appeared in Nepgear's room.

Croire watched as Nepgear let go of her and fell to her knees, bawling her eyes out while Gehaburn flopped to the floor with a metallic clang. "I'm sorry that you had to find out the truth that way."

Nepgear nodded, crying for several more minutes while Croire hovered over her and watched silently. "N...Now what?"

"Now?" Croire shrugged. "That's on you, I suppose. I'm not supposed to interfere with a dimension's history." Nepgear looked up at her in confusion. "I'm a tome, I record history, I can jump dimensions and record what happens, that's all I'm supposed to do. This is the first time I've actually interfered."

Nepgear looked at Gehaburn. "You... You didn't tell me much about this sword, you just said it could kill Arfoire."

Croire shrugged, she supposed she owed the girl that much at least. "It's called the Gehaburn, it's a sword that got cursed a long time ago, but it has the power to kill any Divine being. Anyway, I've seen lots of dimensions, most of the time, you find this thing and at the end, all the other CPUs are dead, leaving you all alone." Nepgear trembled, she felt like that right now. "Sometimes you break the sword and then rebuild it into something even stronger, when that happens the other CPUs survive." Criore was sugar-coating things, she didn't think Nepgear could handle knowing that Gehaburn had been used to kill another version of Neptune and the other CPUs. "Most of the time, though, the other versions of you are all alone at the end. Most of them become Gamindustri's sole CPU, sometimes they abandon their duty and run away, letting new CPUs rise to take over. This Gehaburn though..." Croire looked at the cursed sword and shook her head. "In the end, the Nepgear that had it couldn't stand being alone. After she used it to save Gamindustri, she turned the sword on herself and used it to end her own life."

That was a massive understatement. Croire had watched as that Nepgear stood in the Gamindustri Graveyard and told Histoire that she couldn't bear to go home, that she didn't deserve to live, that the sins she had committed were too vast, before ending her own life and whispering how sorry she was.

Nepgear sniffled and slowly stood up. "I... I..."

"Hey..." Croire floated in front of Nepgear. "Listen, why don't you strip, get into bed and get some sleep, okay?" Nepgear nodded as she stripped down to her panties and slid under the covers of her bed. "Um..." Croire blinked as Nepgear reached out and grabbed Gehaburn. "You shouldn't sleep with that, it's kind of..." She sighed as Nepgear only moved it so that it was within easy grabbing distance from the bed.

"Croire?" Nepgear asked softly. "Will you stay?"

"I can't." Croire shook her head. "I have to travel and record the dimensions, that's my job."

"So I won't see you again?"

Coire was about to tell her that it wasn't likely to happen, but she saw the desperate look on her face before sighing and nodding. "Maybe one day I'll return, okay? And if I ever find a version of your sister that can come visit, I'll bring her to come see you." Nepgear looked at her in confusion. "There's plenty of dimensions out there after all. There's a good chance I'll find a version of your sister out there that can come visit. She won't be your Neptune, but that's better than nothing, right?" Nepgear nodded and sniffled softly. "I'll see about returning in the future, okay?"

Nepgear nodded and slowly closed her eyes. "Thank you... Croire."

Seeing the girl drift off to sleep, Croire shook her head. "Time to go." She whispered and disappeared through a small portal. "Never again. Never interfering with history again."

Not that Croire kept that promise, but that's a story for another time and place far into Croire's future.

In the morning, Nepgear would meet Histoire for the first time and would go through the coronation to become Planeptune's CPU shortly thereafter.

* * *

Croire likes to do stuff that makes things interesting, but she had to have a start somewhere, right?

As we all know, dimensions don't move at a 1:1 rate, so while Nepgear has spent 10 years being Planeptune's CPU in this dimension, Croire has been traveling around for a much longer time.

Anyway, dunno if this will be a continuous thing or not, if you guys wanna see more stuff like this, lemme know. But since this is also so short, I figure I'd do an update here. Don't worry, regular updates will still happen.


	9. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

* * *

Sighing softly as she finished her work for the day, Vert, the blonde, buxom CPU of Leanbox, closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair. 'To think that I would be the only one of the three alliance nations to not have a younger sister.' She thought to herself as she smoothed out her green dress. It was something she thought about constantly since Uni, Rom and Ram had been born. Even though she had made the same announcement that Noire and Blanc had made, her shares had not risen high enough to create a cute little sister for herself.

Standing up and stretching, Vert walked to the balcony of her room and looked out at her beautiful nation. "I wonder... Am I being punished for what I did to Planeptune?" It wouldn't surprise her. A big reason why she was, as Blanc kept putting it, soft on Nepgear, was simply because she viewed the CPU Candidates like they were her younger sisters and the thought of one of them losing their elder sister with no one to turn to for comfort bothered her, and yet, that was what she had done to Nepgear. "I wonder what kind of person she was in the past before Histoire screwed up with her."

Not that Vert completely blamed the tome, Planeptune needed a CPU, but when Histoire had told her what she had done to poor Nepgear, Vert had been the hardest on the tome, explaining in great detail why her approach had been flawed.

But every time she thought about Nepgear, Neptune or saw Noire or Blanc's younger sisters, Vert kept wondering if maybe she was being punished for her part in Neptune's murder.

She largely thought it wasn't fair that she was being punished for something that all three CPUs had done. 'Then again, I'm not suffering as much as Nepgear is, am I?' Every time she saw Nepgear and saw the emptiness in her eyes or heard the anger that crept into the other CPU's voice, Vert wanted to give the poor girl a hug and let her vent into her chest.

"Not that she would accept such a thing from me, I suspect."

_"I have an idea, why don't you find a way to bring my sister back to life and disappear from the world while you're at it?"_

Vert looked out at Leanbox sadly. "I sometimes wish I could, Nepgear. I sometimes wish I could." The thought of Nepgear hating her just felt so... Wrong, like the world itself was corrupted to its core.

"And yet, here we are, living in such a world." Vert sighed. "Neptune, why didn't we listen to you sooner?"

*Flashback*

Green Heart was panting, as was White Heart and Black Heart as they finally managed to kill Purple Heart. The battle was stupidly hard and long and even when the three of them had ganged up on her, Purple Heart still managed to hold her own quite impressively for some time, at least until White Heart managed to damage Purple Heart's wings and kept her grounded.

"What's this?" Black Heart asked as she saw something by her feet. Letting go of her sword, she bent down and picked it up and ignored the rapidly cooling body of Purple Heart.

Pushing a button, Black Heart reacted in surprise as a holographic image of Purple Heart appeared.

_"I suspect that if you're viewing this, that I have died, or you knocked this device away from me, but I suspect I've died."_ Purple Heart took a deep breath and continued, _"I've been thinking about this for quite some time now, but why do we have to fight each other? What's the purpose? To unite Gamindustri under one banner? Aren't we created by the wishes of the people? If that's the case then none of us will be able to unite the world, the people of the other nations will hate us. Hang on a moment."_ Purple Heart was enveloped in light and a short girl in a white hoodie with spiky pink hair stood there, smiling at them. _"So, like, I'm Neptune, but you probably knew that. Anyway, I got tired of fighting and I wanted to make friends with you, I almost got through to Black Heart there awhile ago but then Green Heart showed up and everything went to heck like egg pudding that was out in the sun for too long."_

"I remember that..." Black Heart muttered to herself. "I thought she had teamed up with you to kill me."

"I didn't know you two were there, I just thought it was my lucky day." Green Heart replied, wondering where this message was going.

_"So, like, I've got a younger sister, I know, shocking right? Her name's Nepgear and she's a really good girl, totally bright and a hard worker, but she's still just a kid and has no idea how to run a country. Could you three, I dunno, stop fighting and be friends with her? She's going to need some now that I'm gone. Oh, and be friends with each other too. There's no reason to fight, it just makes us all lose out in the end."_

White Heart sneered. "Says the loser who's dead!"

_"I bet someone just poked fun at me for dying. Well, yeah, but maybe you three could, I dunno, at least try to be friends with her? And if you can't, like, why do we need to keep fighting anyway? This war sucks."_

"Hmph!" White Heart turned to the body of Purple Heart, which exploded into bits of data, and snorted. "Says the loser." She picked up her ax and walked off. "I'm done for the day, unless you two want to keep fighting?"

"No." Black Heart shook her head. "For some reason I feel like my shares have dropped."

"Agreed." Green Heart nodded and walked off to head home. "What should we do about Planeptune then?"

"Feh," White Heart sneered, "after we fix up the problems in our nations we should head over there and crush it to dust, then we can figure out what to do after that."

"Sounds like a plan." Black Heart smirked, "of course, the one who does the most "smashing" of that nation gets to decide what to do with it."

White and Green Heart both smirked and took off to their nations. They had work to do.

*End Flashback*

"Of course, by the time we fixed our share problem it was too late..." Vert sighed. "I can't believe we had been so easily manipulated." The whole Arfoire incident had taken over three months to fully resolve, as she had been the one disrupting their shares. Histoire, after Noire had freed her, had shamed the three CPUs with a lecture that lasted almost fifteen hours and detailed everything that they had done wrong.

"Maybe if I had gone to see Nepgear after killing Neptune and had apologized and helped her grieve, maybe things would be different now?"

Vert knew there'd be no answer, but she sometimes wondered.

(-)

"What kind of crazy people live in Lowee?!" Jupiter yelled as she got off the transport.

"I told you to bring thermal underwear." Uni giggled at the distraught girl. "Lowee's pretty cold all year round."

"There's pretty cold and freezing your private parts off because the wind is cutting right through your clothes like no tomorrow!" Jupiter shivered and she ran her hands over her arms. "I got money! Where's the nearest coat store?!"

Uni giggled at Jupiter as she led the shivering girl to a place to get warmer clothes. "I guess if you live in temperate climates all your life, anything close to freezing would be a problem."

"BAH! People are insane for living here!" Jupiter screamed, drawing a few dirty looks.

"I'm sorry, she's from the South, you know they don't get much snow down there." Uni spoke to the crowds, causing all of them to nod in understanding and go about their day. "That was very rude you know?"

"Sorry!" Jupiter apologized and bowed to the few people who were still giving her dirty looks. "I really am, I'm not used to this."

Uni sighed and grabbed the girl's arm. "Come on, let's get you some warmer clothes if you're that bothered by the cold."

"How come you're not?"

Uni grinned at her. "I had my clothes specially made to deal with all extremes of temperatures. I could hook you up with some if you want."

Jupiter nodded, she couldn't stand the thought of being in such frigid conditions for too long. "So where are... The Ice Climbers Clothing store?"

"Anyone who lives in Lowee's mountains would know how to dress warmly." Uni responded and pulled her inside.

(-)

Ten minutes later...

"AAAAAH!" Jupiter sighed as she stepped out of the store, her legs covered by long shorts, her basketball-styled shirt had an under-shirt on under it. 'Man, those thermal undies that Uni pointed out really work at keeping me warm.' Turning to Uni, she gave her an embarrassed look. "Um, thanks for helping me out."

"No problem. I'm surprised you had so much money. Are you a guild member?"

"I've done some quests, yes." Jupiter nodded. "Mostly to get enough money to do stuff and..." There was a growling sound and she blushed. "Um, I haven't eaten today, so..."

"It's fine, I'm getting hungry too." Uni said. "I've asked a couple of friends of mine to join us at the Cafe on Maryo Drive."

(-)

Fifteen minutes later...

"Miss Uni!"

"Uni! It's been so long!"

"Hey Rom! Hey Ram!" Uni waved at the two young CPU Candidates. "Oh, this is Jupiter, the one I told you about."

Jupiter pouted as she looked at the two young girls. They were dressed in warm-looking clothes that were nearly identical, though the only way she could tell them apart was because one had long hair and one had short hair. "Um, so... Ram and Rom?"

"I'm Ram!" The one with long hair smiled at her brightly.

"I'm R-rom... Nice to meet you." The short haired girl fidgeted as she looked at Jupiter. "You're..."

"I'm Jupiter. I'm just traveling around Gamindustri to see what's going on out here."

"That's cool. I wish our sister would let us travel when we wanted to." Ram pouted. "I mean, we're Lowee's CPU Candidates! Why won't Blanc let us run around too?"

"EH?!" Jupiter gawked in surprise. 'More CPU Candidates?'

"You sound surprised." Uni giggled at her. "But yeah, Rom and Ram are the twin CPU Candidates of Lowee."

As the young girls sat at the table, Jupiter smiled at them. "So, you two know what your country's like, right? I didn't see too many monsters on the way up."

"Yep!" Ram cheered, her arm in the air. "The main pathways are kept monster free so people can come here if they want to, or go to one of Lowee's awesome amusement parks!"

"Uh huh!" Rom nodded. "They're lots of fun!"

"I... See..." Jupiter looked confused and Uni just shook her head.

"I told you, didn't I?" Uni smirked as a waitress came over and put four glasses of water down in front of them. "Things aren't what you thought, huh?"

"I guess not." Jupiter said softly and took a drink of her water. 'Does sis know about this? She has to, but why does she have such a large military if the other nations don't?' Sure, it didn't matter how big a military was when the CPU was worth at least two or three battalions on her own, but a CPU could only do so much on their own after all. 'Does this mean that sis is paranoid for no reason? Or is there an actual reason to have such a military? What's going on?'

"Huh?!" Ram suddenly exploded and Jupiter jumped in her seat. "What do you mean she thinks it's weird we don't have a large military?"

"Like I said," Uni explained to the other CPU Candidate. "She was surprised when she heard that I was asked to deal with a Dogoo infestation at one of the resorts."

"I was just saying for something like that you could probably spare a couple of squads to deal with them."

"Yeah, maybe if we had a full-sized military." Uni scoffed at her. "Newsflash, none of the nations have a military large enough to spare that kind of troops to deal with something like that."

"Yeah, why would we need a strong military?" Ram asked. "Things aren't that bad." She raised an arm into the air. "Besides, any baddies show up, our awesome sister Blanc will just turn them into a pancake!"

"Uh huh! Squish!" Rom added enthusiastically.

"But, what about the other nation?"

"Planeptune?" Uni scratched her cheek. "Hmm... Well I dunno, the CPU there doesn't seem too friendly, but we're not making any moves against them. Then again, I don't know much of anything about Planeptune"

"Uh huh. Big sis keeps saying that she doesn't like Planeptune either."

"Yeah, but that's because the CPU is a big dummy!" Ram huffed. "If she wanted to become friends, I'm sure that big sis would be like 'sure' and then we'd all be friends."

Jupiter nodded softly. "Uh huh... Do you... Do any of you know why?"

"Hmm... Well, I dunno how much you know or how much anyone's told you, but..." Uni looked around and leaned in. "Turns out that the CPUs, that is, our sisters did a really bad thing to Planeptune's CPU and she never forgave them."

Jupiter nodded, she knew about it, but she wondered what they had been told. "I see..."

"So yeah, none of our nations has a strong military and it's not like we're fighting Planeptune anyway." Uni shrugged.

"Um, Miss Uni," Rom spoke up timidly, "maybe Planeptune does?"

"Yeah! Falcom's book said that there were lots of military people roaming the country side." Ram nodded, remembering the stories Blanc had told them before bed.

"Well, that country's weird." Uni huffed. "And besides, it's not like anyone goes in or out very often intentionally."

"That's because, err, my sister tells me that it's because the CPU doesn't trust the other nations, and you seem to know why." Jupiter spoke up, causing the other three to look at her and slowly nod.

"Anyway, that's the gist of it." Uni said to Rom and Ram. "I was going to show Jupiter around Lastation, but then she asked me about the military stuff and I thought I'd show her Lowee."

"Hey! Rom!" Ram suddenly grinned at her twin. "We should take Jupiter to the amusement park!"

"Yeah!" Rom nodded, her eyes sparkling. "Do you want to go with, Miss Jupiter?"

"I guess." Jupiter nodded, trying to hide her excitement. After all, if the people of Lowee could afford to have days at the amusement park then things couldn't be too bad. "Oh! But I need to call my sis, she'll get worried if I don't."

They nodded as Jupiter pulled out her phone and made a call. "Hey, sis! No, I'm fine, sorry for not calling last night, I was just so tired. I'm currently hanging out with some people at a cafe. No, it's okay, I've got money. Alright, thanks, I'll call again soon, okay? Bye."

"So we're good?" Uni asked, getting a nod from Jupiter.

"Yeah." She smiled at them and put her phone away. "Let's go have some fun then."

"Yeah!"

(-)

"Man, that was fun!" Jupiter cheered as the group exited the amusement park. "I really liked that virtual reality remake of that plumber's first game."

"Yeah, that was something Lastation co-worked with Lowee on." Uni nodded as Rom and Ram started talking excitedly about various things.

"Seeing the Cheep Cheep getting eaten by that Piranha Plant was funny." Ram giggled.

"Uh huh... And the Cheep Cheep was only a few days away from retirement too." Rom added, smiling. "That game dialogue was funny."

"It's getting late, huh?" Uni asked rhetorically as she saw the sun starting to sink in the sky. "Hey, Rom, Ram, you think it'll be okay if we spend the night?"

"Uh huh." Rom nodded. "Blanc won't mind."

Jupiter gulped softly. She had only a slight idea of what the CPU of Lowee was like, but from what her sister had told her, she knew that she couldn't trust any of the CPUs. 'Sis never said anything about their sisters, so maybe it's okay that I'm here, but if I meet with White Heart I'm probably going to die. What did sis say again if I meet them? Oh right, be polite and... Don't talk about her boobs, got it!' Either the CPU of Lowee would kill her or her sister would when she found out that she was near White Heart. "I...Is that so?"

"Are you okay?" Rom asked.

"Y, yeah, um, I...I'm fine." Jupiter stuttered and shivered softly. "J...Just a bit cold."

"Well, you aren't used to Lowee." Uni replied. "Come on, let's get in before our bodies decide we need to use the bathroom twenty times in five minutes." She grabbed Jupiter's arm and dragged her towards Lowee's Basilicom.

"Um, it's okay, I can just spend time at a motel."

"No way!" Ram chided Jupiter as she pushed the girl from behind. "Why spend money for a bed when you can get a really comfy one for free?"

Jupiter gulped and really, REALLY hoped that the CPU wasn't in.

(-)

Meanwhile...

"Hmm?" Anonydeath looked up at the monitors that kept tabs on Lowee's Basilicom. "Interesting that little Noire's cute little sister is in Lowee at this time, oh well, she might just be there to get some food or spend the... Oh, hello!" His voice pitched up and he leaned in. "I'd wonder who this little girl is, but considering the hair..." He pushed a button and turned on the audio to listen in.

_"Miss Jupiter, this way."_ Rom tugged at the new girl's arm, dragging her along.

"Jupiter, huh?" Anonydeath clicked on several cameras and saw the girl's face before sighing. "Oh honey, your sister is going to cause you trouble."

Still, it wouldn't do either Nepgear or Jupiter any good if this information got back to the CPU. "I think I'll keep this quiet. I'm sure that your big sister will find out eventually." Anonydeath hated keeping secrets like this away from Nepgear, but he really didn't want to find out how she'd react to finding out her sister was in the other nations.

He sighed softly and leaned back. "Still, I should keep an eye on this. I'm sure that honey wouldn't want her cute little sister to get in trouble." Anonydeath quickly worked on hacking into Lowee's systems. "Just in case, I better make sure that the cute little sister has a way out before things go bad."

After all, if the nearby amusement park had their automatons go out of control and terrify everyone, then the CPU would have to make sure that everything was under control.

(-)

Jupiter wasn't sure what she was expecting when she was told she was going to meet White Heart. Though from what her sister had told her about Lowee's CPU, having really strong defense, a bad temper, and incredible strength, she half-suspected that the girl was a total brute. She had seen Lowee's CPU at the conference and heard from Histoire that the meeting between the CPUs had gone pretty badly after White Heart's temper got the better of her.

She was completely floored when she saw White Heart's human form. The light blue outfit, the poofy hat and the mellow expression just didn't match what she knew about Lowee's CPU.

"Hello, my name is Blanc." White Heart said in that soft-spoken tone of voice of hers. "I heard that you were with my sisters today."

"Ah heh heh heh..." Jupiter was starting to sweat, she really, REALLY didn't want to be around Lowee's CPU, but trying to get away would only draw suspicion her way.

"Thank you for taking care of them." Blanc gave her a nod. "And to you, Uni, thank you for showing up today."

"Hey, no problem." Uni smiled at Blanc. "Noire gave me a couple of days off when I told her I was showing Jupiter around."

"Jupiter, huh?" Blanc looked at the nervous girl and wondered why she looked like she wanted to run away screaming. "Is there something wrong?"

"Ah, um, eh heh... Never met a CPU before..." Jupiter answered, which was true, she had never met another CPU before this moment.

"You don't need to be so nervous." Blanc answered her. "We're all friends here."

"Yeah, see?" Ram grinned at Jupiter. "Told you my big sister was awesome!"

Jupiter just giggled nervously, hating the fact that she couldn't relax with White Heart in the same room as her. It wasn't that she hated the other CPU, but she was pretty terrified of her. After all, she was one of three people that her sister Nepgear absolutely loathed with all her being. 'I'm more worried that sis will know that I'm here somehow and come barreling through the wall and try to kill everyone here.'

"However, shall we get something to eat? Financier made a lovely meal."

"Yeah!" Ram and Rom cheered at the same time, "Financier's meals are delicious!" They both yelled and ran off to the dining room.

"I'll have to let Noire know that I'm spending the night here." Uni said as she went after them and pulled out her phone.

Jupiter couldn't move as she stood there alone with White Heart. As much as she tried to relax, it was hard to do so. "So, um, Whi, err, Lady White Heart," for some reason Jupiter hated saying that.

"Please, you don't need to be so formal, when I'm like this you can call me Blanc." She gave the purple haired girl a small smile. "Is there something you want?"

"Um, we, well... I was...Kind of..."

"Do you always stutter over your words?" Blanc asked and tilted her head.

"Sorry! Sorry!" Jupiter clapped her hands and bowed her head. "I was wondering about the war is all!"

"Huh? There's no war going on." Blanc's confusion was evident in her voice. "Why do you ask?"

"W, well, I was ju, just wondering about the war between the nations." Jupiter looked at Blanc, worry written all over her face.

"The nations haven't fought each other for over a decade now." Blanc frowned softly. "This is common knowledge."

"Um, well, I, that is to say, I don't know that stuff. I only know what my sister taught me and I wanted to see the world and..."

Blanc sighed. "Are you from Planeptune or something?" She shook her head as the girl stiffened up. "It doesn't matter, I suppose if you got your information from that nation you might be uninformed about the world. However," she gave Jupiter a light smile, "someone who tries to correct their ignorance... I don't dislike those people. Now come, the food will get cold." As she turned and walked away, Blanc took a look back at Jupiter and frowned in confusion for only a moment before looking forward again. For some reason she felt like she had seen Jupiter before, but couldn't place where. 'Oh well, it's probably not important.' If it was, she would remember it in time.

When Blanc walked off, Jupiter slumped to her knees, trembling. "That was scary!" She whispered to herself. Sure, White Heart didn't get mad, but Jupiter could have sworn that the CPU was about to find out who she was and then do to her what happened to her elder sister's elder sister. 'Wait, does that mean that she was my elder sister too?'

(-)

Meanwhile...

Nepgear sighed as she finished off another stack of papers. "What time is it?" She glanced around and found the digital clock on the wall above the door. "Huh, it's that late? Usually..." She trailed off and sighed softly. "I guess I rely on her more than I thought." Jupiter would, unless she was doing quests, come in at around this time to see if she was hungry and needed some food.

Reaching into her desk, Nepgear pulled out a photo, showing Jupiter, shortly after she had been born, with a huge smile on her face as she completed the task that Nepgear had given her without screwing it up. "I miss that smile."

She put that photo back and looked at the photo that was under it. "...Neptune..." She whispered softly as she saw her elder sister and herself, both covered in slime, dirt and grime, but both smiling brightly as they finished off some Dogoos that had been bothering local farms. At the time Nepgear had only been known as an adventurer that the CPU was helping out.

_"I'd love to introduce you to the world, Nep Jr., but we need to keep this quiet for right now. Besides, I'm sure that if the other CPUs knew I had a younger sister they'd be all like "how come you get a younger sister and I don't" and would try to take all our shares even harder than they do now."_

Nepgear sighed heavily and put that photo back. Looking at the paperwork on her desk, she simply got up and walked away. There wasn't much left and she was feeling hungry anyway.

"Ah!" Histoire jerked in surprise as the door opened suddenly as Nepgear came out. "I was just about to call you and ask if you... Are you okay?"

Nepgear nodded and tilted her head. "Why do you ask?"

"You're crying."

Nepgear brought a hand up to her face and pulled it away, noticing the tears there. "...So I was."

"You don't need to..." Histoire paused as Nepgear walked off. "Nepgear, if you need to talk about anything, I'll listen."

"After I eat I'm going to go for a walk." Nepgear said to the tome.

"Very well." Histoire nodded slowly.

(-)

After eating, Nepgear found herself in a park that was on the other side of the city. There were trees that had flowers of purple and blue all over the place. "Neptune..." She whispered to herself as she walked towards the life-sized statue that was in the center of the park. "In memoriam of Purple Heart," Nepgear read the plaque to herself softly, "who lost her life in the Console Wars to defend Planeptune from its enemies." Looking up, Nepgear fought the urge to break down crying as she saw her sister's HDD form looking proud and brave. "Neptune... I had this park made for you. But am I doing the right thing with my little sister? Am I doing a good job as your replacement?"

Sighing, Nepgear looked down at the ground. "I've tried, Onee-chan, I've tried so damn much. Every day you're gone hurts just as much as the last. Sometimes I want to take that cursed sword I have and use it on myself. But I can't do that to Jupiter. I know she needs more time." She looked up, tears falling out of her eyes silently. "I can't stand it anymore."

Nepgear was thankful that this memorial park wasn't near the downtown area or the Basilicom, not because she didn't want people to come to it, she did, but because she wanted to be alone at that moment. "What should I do? I know the war ended when you died, but I can't bring myself to forgive your killers. I know that they were manipulated, I know that... But they still killed you." She looked down, trembling. "I'm sorry, I know... A CPU that lets her emotions rule her is a failure as a CPU. I have no logical reason to not announce that the war is over. But I..." She balled her hands into fists. "I just can't ignore my emotions." Nepgear put her hand over her heart and sighed. "I'm sorry, sis. I'll do what I can..." She turned to leave and took a deep breath. "But, Neptune... I miss you and I love you. I wish you could come back."

* * *

Was originally going to reveal the Purple Heart statue here.

And that's how Neptune died.

...We need something to lighten the mood!

* * *

"Welcome to Nepstation! With your hosts Neptune and...

"Plutia. Hey, Neppy, we're not in the story, why are we here?"

"Good question, Plutie, the story's been really sad, I started to cry when I read the last bit there and thought we could liven this place up!"

"But, Neppy! I don't even get to show up at all! You at least have some screen time."

"Yeah, but I died! Anyway, what's the flaming robot going to do next?"

"I don't know, but it would be nice if he took his armor off, he's really handsome outside of it, hee hee hee."

"Uh, Plutie, even in Re;birth 3, he was just a shadowy outline."

"I know that! But even Noire couldn't ignore how handsome he was."

"Right, anyway, next time, Jupiter confronts Blanc! Aliens with Blanc's face show up! A dangerous dragon runs wild! And exploding penguins!"

"Neppy, does any of that actually happen?"

"I don't know, you'll have to read the next chapter and find out!"

"That's it for Nepstation. This is Plutia..."

"And Neptune! Signing off!"


	10. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

* * *

Anonydeath sighed as he watched Jupiter having dinner with the cute little CPU Candidates and White Heart. "Sheesh, you need to act a little less nervous, cutie-pie." It was obvious to anyone watching that Jupiter was incredibly nervous, while she tried to pass it off as being nervous around a CPU, Anonydeath knew it couldn't last for too much longer. "Well, guess I better give you an out, huh?"

(-)

"Lady Blanc!" A voice yelled as a maid ran into the dining area. "I'm terribly sorry for intruding on your meal, but there's an emergency at one of the local amusement parks."

"What is it, Financier?" Blanc asked, glad that the tension in the room was being broken up by something. She had no idea why Jupiter was so nervous around her, or why she was sitting so far away. Quite frankly, it was annoying Blanc something fierce, but at least the girl wasn't rude.

"The automatons have suddenly gone berserk, milady." The maid bowed, causing everyone to stand up. "On top of that a dozen bits have appeared. So far no injuries have been reported but..."

"That's fine, I'll take care of it." A flash of white light engulfed her and Blanc's body was covered in a white body outfit, her brown hair had turned blue and her eyes had gone red. "Alright, I'm heading..." She stopped as Rom, Ram and Uni were all engulfed in white light as well. "You three..."

"You aren't leaving us out of this!" Ram, in a similar outfit to Blanc's, her hair now pink, grinned at her big sister. "Besides, there might be people hurt and you could use some help."

"Uh huh. We're helping!" Rom, in a near-identical outfit to Ram's, though her hair was blue, nodded enthusiastically.

"And we're allies, aren't we?" Uni asked, her body covered in a skin-tight black body suit, her black hair had become white and her pigtails had spiraled into a rough drill shape, her eyes had gone green and, as Jupiter noted, her breasts, which were already pretty small, had shrunk.

"Should I..." Jupiter jumped as White Heart glared at her.

"If yer gunna be that scared, just stay here, besides, I'd rather work with people I know than someone who looks like she wants to run off constantly!" White Heart snapped and ran off with Rom and Ram following after her.

"Sorry, it won't take us long." Uni gave Jupiter an apologetic look and ran off after them.

After the others were gone, Jupiter let out a long sigh. "I...I'm not a coward..." She moaned and slumped down in her chair. "Sis is going to be disappointed in me."

"Excuse me." Financier spoke up, causing Jupiter to look up at her. "I couldn't help but notice how nervous you were the whole time that Lady Blanc was here."

"Um, that is..."

Financier held up a hand. "It's quite alright, I can understand being nervous when seeing a CPU for the first time, I know I was, but your level of nervousness isn't normal and Lady Blanc is, despite what rumors will tell you, quite empathetic." Jupiter sighed and Financier gave Jupiter a small smile. "You're from Planeptune, aren't you? Please! Calm down!" She held up her hands as Jupiter looked at her with white, blank eyes and trembled. "Whatever you say will be kept between the two of us."

"How did you know?"

"I didn't." Financier smiled at Jupiter's dumbfounded expression. "I took a stab in the dark, because the only thing that made sense for how nervous you are is that you're from the isolated nation."

Jupiter sighed and sat down. "You think White Heart knows?"

"She probably has some suspicions." Financier admitted and walked over to the girl. "I can imagine that the view of the CPUs outside of Lady Lilac Heart is pretty negative in Planeptune, huh?"

Jupiter sighed and nodded. "Yeah, sis, err, that is, my sister took me to a memorial park once, beautiful place, a bit away from the Basilicom and business area, it's a memorial for Purple Heart."

"The previous CPU that died in the war..." Financier sighed softly, she didn't know all the details surrounding Purple Heart's death, she suspected only a few people did. "I take it that the people..."

"They know that their beloved CPU died fighting in the war." Jupiter cut Financier off. "Very few people know all the details." Not even Jupiter knew all the details, Histoire only gave her the general outline of what happened while Nepgear refused to say anything more.

"Suddenly your nervousness makes a lot of sense." Financier nodded to her. "I know it might not change your mind anytime soon, but..." She gave Jupiter a small smile. "Lady White Heart, that is, Lady Blanc, deeply regrets what she did during the war."

Jupiter looked at her sharply. "Really? I find it hard to believe."

"I can imagine that you would." Financier shook her head. "Whether you do or don't isn't important. But... And if Lady Blanc hears about this, you didn't hear it from me, I've been a maid for the CPU and her sisters for close to ten years now, and I can tell you, Lady Blanc gets horrible nightmares. I've had to help her calm down more than once, she once told me that she dreamed about Lady Purple Heart asking her to die for what she did." The brown-haired maid turned and walked towards the door. "Do with that information what you will, but know that Lady Blanc would like nothing more than to apologize to your CPU over what happened."

Jupiter said nothing as she was left alone in her thoughts.

(-)

"That maid is sharp, it would be a shame if something happened to her." Anonydeath sing-songed. "Very tempting..." He sighed, knowing that Nepgear wouldn't approve. "Besides, if I did hack into it, all I would do it make the blender, the chopper and the microwave try to kill her." He had to admit, that would be kind of funny in one of those silly, campy children horror movies where toys came to life and tried to kill their owners sort of way. Looking at the amusement park security cameras, he scoffed as he saw the automatons getting blown up. "Well maybe honey's cute little sister can relax now?"

(-)

After quickly getting to the amusement park, White Heart grimaced as she saw the people panicking. 'Going to be a pain in the ass to deal with after this.' She turned to the CPU Candidates. "You three, make sure to help get people out of here unharmed, I'm going to deal with the out-of-control automatons." The three nodded and flew down, calling to the panicking civilians.

Hovering just over an oncoming group of people who were running from a scary-looking penguin that was breathing fire, Uni yelled at them before blasting the penguin in the head, which thankfully seemed to calm the crowd down. "Listen everyone!" Uni was grateful that most of them were calm enough to look up at her. "Head this way!" She turned and blasted the far wall. "Double file, make sure that everyone gets through."

Above them, Rom held her staff down as energy built up at the tip before she fired an arcing stream of energy that went from one automation to another, blowing holes through them with ease.

Ram was on the ground, hovering just over it as she fired ice crystal blasts at some animal-shaped animatronics. "Bleah! For some reason I don't like those foxes and hedgehogs."

Rom nodded as she blasted another automation. "How are..." She looked down to see Uni helping a young child through the hole in the wall that she blasted and returned the young child to its mother. Rom couldn't tell if the child was a boy or a girl from this angle, but she was glad that people were being taken care of.

Hearing an explosion in the distance, she looked at it and saw a merry go round fly into the air with lots of robots on it before a spinning ax cut through it and caused them to explode messily. "I hope Blanc's okay."

"Don't worry." Ram called up to her. "Big sis can't lose to these things!"

Rom nodded, but she still worried.

(-)

White Heart snarled as she smashed another duck robot, this time with her bare fists as she was waiting for her ax to return after throwing it after that merry go round. "I knew that we shouldn't have hired those five guys from Freddy's to make the automatons here." Shaking her hand as it was throbbing a little bit, she held her hand up and caught her ax as it returned.

"Hey! Look out!" A familiar voice was heard from behind her. White Heart turned to see a humanoid fox robot in the air descending on her with two large knives in each of its hands. White Heart narrowed her eyes and smirked at the robot as someone came dive-bombing the robot from behind. "C-KICK!" The person's leg was practically on fire as they went through the robot's body, causing it to explode while the person in question hit the ground and slid to a stop next to White Heart. "Hey, Blanny, it's been too long."

White Heart snarled at the person in question. "Dammit, C-Sha, you know that you're not supposed to call me that when I'm in this form."

C-Sha, a buxom woman with long brown hair, a blue vest and brown leggings smiled at Blanc. "My bad, Blanny." She giggled and turned as a buster formed on her right arm before firing an energy blast at a bear automation, blasting a hole through the center of it. "I was going to come see you in the morning when I heard the screams over here, so I decided to help evacuate people."

White Heart smiled at that. "Thanks, C-Sha. Shall we thrash these shitheads?"

Grinning, the busty woman nodded. "It'll be great to partner up again."

"Well then, I better not hold back, huh?" White Heart smirked as she held out her hand as several small orbs formed in front of it. "Gefahrlichtern!" Tossing them up, she spun around a couple of times to build up speed before slamming her ax into the orbs. "C-Sha!" She yelled as the orbs flew into the air above the rest of the automations.

"On it!" C-Sha nodded as the end of her blaster was glowing with built-up power. "C-Buster STREAM!" She cried out and fired upwards at the orbs. The energy attack hit the balls and split and bounced off of the balls, bombarding the ground with energy and destroying the last of the robots.

"There wasn't that many, and they weren't that tough, you didn't need to help." White Heart scoffed and turned away, her face slightly red. "But thanks."

C-Sha took a quick look around and saw that there was no one around before she jumped at White Heart and hugged her from behind. "Aww, Blanny, your shyness is so cute!"

"H-Hey!" White Heart glared and squirmed as she tried to get free. "Just because we're partners doesn't mean you can act like this when I'm in public you know!"

C-Sha giggled and let go of the hug. "Oh Blanny, I know that. I'll let you deal with the media, okay?" She was amused as White Heart twitched in annoyance.

"Fine, whatever." White Heart sighed. "By the way, were you..."

"Like I said, I was helping to get people out of here when I saw you show up." C-Sha answered her, getting a nod from White Heart.

"Thanks, I owe you." White Heart's face turned red as C-Sha put her hand on White Heart's head and ruffled her hair. "H-HEY!"

"We're partners, Blanny, you don't owe me anything, okay?" C-Sha's eyes lit up as she saw Rom, Ram and Uni heading their way. "Hey! Rommy! Rammy! Uni!"

"C-Sha!" Rom and Ram squealed in delight and both dove at her, hugging her as they transformed back to normal, Uni transformed back as she landed a few feet away.

White Heart rolled her eyes, though she had a small smile on her face. "Well, whatever, get going, okay? I'll handle the press. Oh, Rom, Ram, I won't be home for some time, I'll have to investigate why the machines all went crazy." She hovered to the front of the park where she knew the press was already gathering.

C-Sha nodded and led the trio of girls out of the park.

As she walked out, Uni sighed softly. "What a waste."

"C-Sha?" Rom looked up at the older woman, who smiled at her. "Are you going to stick around this time?"

"Hmm?" C-Sha looked at the short-haired girl in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"You keep disappearing for months and we don't get to see you!" Ram pouted, knowing that C-Sha had lots of field work to do, but it sucked not seeing her. "Plus sis is always happier when you're around."

C-Sha smiled at them. "Well, I'll see what I can do. I'll need to go talk to my bosses about getting some time off then if Blanny misses me that much."

Behind them, Uni fought to keep her jealousy down. While there were some people Noire could talk to outside of the CPUs, she didn't have many, and none were as close to her as C-Sha was to Blanc. 'And I don't have any friends my age.' She sighed softly.

Uni blinked as Jupiter's face flashed through her mind. "...Well, maybe I have one now." She said softly, a smile coming to her face.

"Sorry, Rommy, Rammy, I can't go back to the Basilicom with you." C-Sha nodded at their disappointed looks. "Don't worry, I'll see about sticking around longer this time."

Both CPU Candidates cheered and hugged C-Sha happily.

After walking back to the Basilicom and talking about how things had been going, C-Sha nodded to Financier and watched as the three girls walked into the building. "So, C-Sha..." Financier gave her a small smile. "Are you going to disappear again?"

"I think I want to stick around for more than a few days this time." C-Sha answered her. "But I need to talk to my boss first."

"You know if you worked for the Basilicom that you wouldn't have to talk to your boss." Financier answered, getting a shake from C-Sha.

"That's true, and I know that Blanny, Rommy and Rammy would all be thrilled if I did that, but I like to do things the proper way, it leaves less bad taste in everyone's mouth."

The maid smiled and nodded at her. "Of course." She waved as C-Sha said goodbye and left. "I'm sure that Lady Blanc will be a lot happier if you stick around this time, C-Sha." She whispered to herself and went inside.

(-)

A little bit later...

"So it went well?" Jupiter asked, getting a nod from Ram as she, Rom and Uni walked into the room.

"Yeah, we totally went in and smashed them all up."

"It wasn't too hard." Uni added as she stretched her arms over her head. "But there were quite a bit of them. Anyway, Blanc said she was going to deal with the media and she'll stick around after that to investigate the wreckage and see what caused them to go out of control.

"Want to play some games, Miss Jupiter?" Rom asked, smiling shyly.

"Sure." Jupiter grinned. Hopefully she could relax a bit more since White Heart wasn't at the Basilicom. "What do you got?"

"Come on!" Ram dragged her to their bedroom. "We got some awesome party and racing games." Uni and Rom followed after, both smiling happily.

Watching them from not far away, Finanicer smiled gently. "Even if the CPUs make you nervous, Jupiter, I hope that you can be friends with their sisters." She said softly.

(-)

Hours later...

Blanc sighed as she walked through the Basilicom. The investigation had turned up some very interesting information and she knew that forensics would need at least a day or three to finish their analysis of the automatons. Having to calm the crowds down and keep people from getting too upset hadn't been too fun. Making statements to reporters about what happened and reassuring everyone that the Basilicom would get to the bottom of everything was just mind-numbingly boring.

Blanc was about to head to her office when she saw the door to the twins room was open and the light was on. "They should be in bed already." Walking over to the tall doors, she opened them and blinked in surprise.

Uni, Jupiter, Rom and Ram were all sleeping against each other on the couch, with Uni's head on Jupiter's head while the purple haired girl had her head resting on Uni's shoulder while Ram was sleeping across both of their laps while Rom was curled up at the end of the couch. "...Cute..." She whispered softly and pulled out a camera from her inventory and took a few pictures. After doing that, she went over to the bed and pulled out a blanket and covered the four girls up, causing them to sigh softly before she walked over to the door and turned off the light.

"They're going to be sore in the morning." Blanc said to herself, but decided she couldn't be mad. After all, she got some really cute pictures out of it.

(-)

"Excuse me?" Noire asked as she looked at the communication terminal with Blanc and Vert on it. "Your amusement park was hacked into?"

"Yes." Blanc nodded at the Lastation CPU. "I wanted to warn you and Vert to check for anything unusual."

"Do we have any idea who did it?" Vert asked, getting a shake of Blanc's head. "That makes it harder to pinpoint. Was there any..."

"Forensics said it will take some time to figure everything out." Blanc replied. "However, I wanted to warn you just in case. Also, Noire, I'll be sending the data of the hack over to you."

Noire nodded as she saw a pop up in her email. "I'll take a look at it. Blanc, how's Uni doing?"

"She's fine." Blanc gave them a small smile and pulled out a memory stick. "In fact, I have a little something special for the two of you." After inserting it and getting the files off the memory stick, she sent both Vert and Noire a copy of the pictures she took.

"Oh my, how cute." Vert gushed over the image. "Oh? Who's that fourth girl? I don't recognize her."

"Her name's Jupiter. Apparently she's someone that Uni met and is traveling with." Blanc answered. "She got really nervous around me for some reason and was asking about the Console Wars of all things."

"That's interesting." Noire said softly as she looked at the girl. 'She looks familiar, but why?'

"This is so precious. Thank you, Blanc. I'm surprised you gave this up so easily." Vert gushed over the communication line, causing Blanc to roll her eyes.

"I must be tired if I sent it to you." Blanc sniped back at her. "Anyway, just have your people check stuff out, you don't want your citizens getting attacked."

"Speaking of which," Vert spoke up, a serious look on her face, "was anyone hurt?"

"Just pride, some of them peed their pants when the machines attacked, but otherwise everyone's fine." Blanc answered. "Well, I'm going to head to bed."

"Very well, I have things I need to finish up on myself." Vert smiled and turned off the communication device.

After the two signed off, Noire pulled up the image of the four girls resting together. "Sure is cute." But there was something about Jupiter that was pricking the back of her mind. 'Why does she look so familiar to me?' The answer was there, at the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't figure out why she couldn't figure it out.

"Oh well, I think I'm going to try on some outfits." Noire smiled softly. Cosplay always helped her relax before she went to bed if she wasn't gaming.

(-)

"Mmmm!" Anonydeath watched in delight as Noire stripped out of her clothes, leaving her naked. "I know that Goddesses are created the way they are, but she really does have a heavenly body." He shook his head as his cameras got a really good angle as she bent over. "There are people who would pay good money just to be able to see a glimpse of her bare butt, never-mind the full money shot that I'm getting!"

There was a clearing of a throat and Anonydeath turned to see Nepgear standing at the door, an annoyed look on her face. "I know that you have a crush on Noire, but it's still annoying to see you gush all over her."

"Are you jealous, honey?" Anonydeath asked in amazement.

Nepgear scoffed at that. "I don't care if you want to bend her over your desk and stuff her full of tentacles or whatever you want to do with her, I just hate the fact that you're looking at her while I'm here."

"Oh honey, you are jealous. But don't worry, while I do enjoy watching little Noire and commenting on her perfect derriere, I promise that I won't do anything with her since you're a much better match for me than she is."

"Please, we both know that it wouldn't work out between us." Nepgear rolled her eyes and resisted the urge to tell him that her butt was much better than Noire's butt was. "That's not why I'm here. I happened to catch a very interesting news broadcast out of Lowee. Something about automatons going out of control and attacking the people. Now why would that happen?"

"I have no idea what you..." Anonydeath trailed off as the temperature in the room dropped several degrees. "Honey, all I will say is that I made sure that those things didn't harm anyone and I had a very good reason to do what I did."

"I don't care for Blanc, but I refuse to let innocent people get hurt." Nepgear narrowed her eyes at him. "And you probably ruined a few people's day with that stunt."

"Again, honey, I had a good reason. I needed Blanc distracted for awhile. Little Noire's cute little sister was in Lowee as well, so I was just making sure that everyone was distracted."

"Fine." Nepgear said and turned to leave. "But if you do that again, Anonydeath, I won't be happy."

After Nepgear left, Anonydeath sighed and slumped. "I'm glad she didn't press on why I did that. She would have stormed Lowee demanding her sister back."

Looking back at the screens, he sighed as he saw Noire dancing around in cosplay. For some reason, he didn't feel like watching her anymore that day.

* * *

Not the longest chapter, I admit. I had to go back and add scenes because this chapter was only slightly longer than the interlude chapter was. Future chapters will get longer, I promise.

If you guys want to know, I can write up an interlude for when Blanc teamed up with and/or met C-Sha, lemme know. But that won't appear until later, of course.


	11. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

I'm glad people liked C-Sha's appearance. =3

* * *

The next day in Lowee...

Blanc waved her sisters, Uni and Jupiter off as they went out to run around the city and have some fun. While she asked Rom and Ram to deal with a couple of quests, she hoped that with Rom and Ram running around the city that people who had been at the amusement park last night would have their days brightened. "So, Financier..." The CPU turned to her maid. "Did Jupiter tell you anything?"

The maid nodded at her. "Yes. She apparently spent time with people who don't look favorably upon you and was told a lot of negative things growing up."

"I see..." Blanc sighed, "that explains a lot. There are those people who think that the world would be better without CPUs running the show after all."

"If it makes you feel better, Lady Blanc, she never said that she shared the same views, but you and I both know it's hard for someone who was raised with negative facts pushed down their throat to change their mind so easily."

"Very well, just keep an eye on her." Blanc turned to walk back to her office, leaving the maid alone.

After making sure that no one was around, Financier sighed softly. "I'm sorry, Lady Blanc, but I couldn't tell you the truth." She whispered to herself. Walking off, she wished she could have told Blanc what she discovered the night before, but she hated to think what would have happened if Blanc found out that Jupiter was from Planeptune. 'Come to think of it, wasn't the previous CPU of Planeptune named Neptune?'

There was something there, she was certain of it, but she wasn't sure exactly what it was.

(-)

"Wow..." Jupiter gawked at the damage done to the amusement park. "That's... Bad." She doubted her sister would have had an easier time dealing with her own country's amusement park automatons coming to life and damaging everything. There were potholes in the ground and damaged buildings everywhere. "I'm sorry that this happened."

"Don't worry about it!" Ram smiled at her. "This isn't even the same level of damage as the time those silly bounty hunters came in all drunk and destroying everything."

Rom nodded. "Uh huh, they were dumb poopie heads."

"I don't want to know, do I?" Jupiter asked with a big sweat-drop on her head.

"Probably not." Uni shook her head. "Well, let's go, there's still other places to go and have fun around Lowee."

"Sure." Jupiter nodded and glanced back at the amusement park and wondered why she felt like what happened was her fault.

As the four walked away, a guard suddenly ran up to them. "Lady Rom! Lady Ram! It's horrible!"

"What is it?" Ram asked the faceless guard.

"A Plaid Dolphin has appeared along with a bunch of Sergeant Froggies near the Lowee-Lastation border. To make matters worse, a large number of Crystal Golems were seen to the North."

"What?!" The three candidates gasped in shock.

Jupiter frowned at hearing that. "Is this common for those monsters?" The guard shook her head. "What's the S.O.P. when this happens?"

"Well, that is..."

Jupiter groaned, they didn't even have a Standard Operating Procedure when something like this happened? "How many people are in danger of being hurt?"

"Oh! The monsters to the South are the ones who will hurt the most civilians first as there's a number of small villages not far from there. But there's the amusement parks to the North and there's a lot of people there."

Jupiter nodded. "Alright." She looked at the candidates. "We're going to take care of the ones to the South first." She turned to the guard. "Get the CPU and head North, have whatever defense force you can muster up head up there ASAP and evacuate the area of civilians, the CPU should be able to handle a large group of monsters by herself."

The four gaped at Jupiter, who sighed and clapped her hands. "MOVE IT!"

"RIGHT!" They all yelled and ran off.

"HEY!" Jupiter yelled as she ran after Uni, Rom and Ram. "Wait for me!"

The three Candidates transformed into their HDD forms and waited for Jupiter to catch up to them before grabbing her and taking off through the air at high speeds for the monsters to the South.

"Is there a reason you're having us go South?" Uni asked, her voice somewhat gruff in her HDD form.

"The more people there are the more crazy things get." Jupiter responded, remembering the tactics that Nepgear taught her. "When dealing with a large group of weaker enemies or a smaller group of really strong enemies, it's best to deal with the stronger enemies first. Because if you get worn out facing the weaker enemies you won't be able to handle the stronger ones."

"But if you get hurt dealing with the stronger ones then you won't be able to face the weaker ones." Uni pointed out, getting a nod from Jupiter.

"Yeah, I brought that up too. I was told that sometimes there's no good options and you have to make a choice and it's probably better to have weaker enemies running around that can be handled by guild members or common soldiers rather than having strong enemies that only you can handle running around unopposed."

"That makes sense." Rom said softly as she, Ram and Uni helped carry Jupiter to the location.

(-)

"Lady Blanc!" Financier ran into Blanc's work room. "Emergency!" Blanc looked at her in confusion, but stood up, if Financier was worrying about something, it was bad. "The Lowee World Fair on the island to the North is being overrun by Crystal Golems!"

Blanc's eyes widened and in a flash White Heart was standing there. "Fine, I'll go smash 'em." She was in a bad mood from last night after having to deal with automatons going out of control and now this?

"Please be careful, your sisters, Uni and Jupiter have gone to the Lowee-Lastation border to deal with a monster horde down there and C-Sha's on the street if you want some help." Financier added the last bit helpfully.

White Heart sneered, she knew she could handle some Crystal Golems by herself with ease. 'Still, it wouldn't hurt to have back-up, they might be high level, and C-Sha's almost as strong as I am.' She nodded and flew out the window and saw her partner standing on the street waving at her. "Hold on." She grabbed C-Sha's extended hand and flew off towards the island. "Why do you want to come with anyway?" She asked while flying as fast as she could without wrenching C-Sha's arm out of her socket.

"I was coming to see you when this happened." C-Sha smiled up at White Heart. "Seems that my timing still sucks, huh?"

"Feh, don't sell yourself short." White Heart smirked at her. "After all, if your timing didn't suck, we wouldn't be partners, now would we?"

C-Sha smiled up at White Heart. "Yeah."

(-)

It didn't take the two long to get to the island in question and White Heart grimaced at the amount of people running for the ferry boats. "Why did I think it was a good idea to put an amusement park on this island?"

"Because there weren't any monsters there to begin with?" C-Sha pointed out, getting a scoff from White Heart. "But this is a bit worrying, even to me, Blanny. I know that this island was uninhabited of monsters when we surveyed it just last year.

"Tch," White Heart grimaced and picked up the speed. "Well, let's deal with them."

"Of course." C-Sha grinned.

(-)

Several minutes later...

Even though there were plenty of monsters to deal with, dozens upon dozens of them, their overall level and ability compared to C-Sha and White Heart was no better than the average dogoo against an adventurer with any sort of experience.

That is to say, it was a complete slaughter.

"This is too easy." White Heart smirked as she struck down another Crystal Golem. "I don't know why I was worried in the slightest."

"Because they might have been at least close to level fifty and given you trouble if they ganged up on you?" C-Sha pointed out as she kicked one of the Crystal Golems away.

"I'll have you know that I only brought you with because..."

"Lady White Heart!" A soldier ran up, panic in her voice and White Heart looked at her while C-Sha blasted some Crystal Golems. "It's horrible! We just got a report that there's a Tiamat rampaging on the Lowee-Lastation border."

White Heart's eyes widened at hearing that. "A Tiamat? Crap! That's a CPU-class enemy." As far as Ancient Dragons were concerned, there were very few that were stronger than it. Her face paled as she remembered what Financier told her. "CRAP! C-Sha! You finish up here! I have to get going!"

"Go! Go!" C-Sha nodded and turned back to the monsters. "I'll have them cleared up in no time and we'll find out why this happened."

White Heart smirked and took off in the air as fast as she could go. Her smirk disappeared as she remembered what she was heading into. "Dammit!" She screamed and formed another circle under her feet and used it to increase her speed again. Tears came to White Heart's eyes as she imagined Rom, Ram and Uni all laying on the ground dead. "Not again! Please! Not again!" Another circle formed under her feet and she used it to accelerate again. She kept pushing herself as fast as she could go, but she knew she wouldn't make it in time to save them. "I don't want anyone else to die because of me."

'After all,' White Heart thought to herself in disgust, 'I'm the reason that Purple Heart died, I'm the reason her sister hates us,' an image of a hurt and angry Nepgear flashed through her mind. "HURRY UP YOU STUPID IDIOT! MOVE IT!" She screamed at herself as she kept boosting herself as fast as she could go.

She knew she wouldn't make it in time, she just hoped that when she got there that everyone was still alive.

(-)

A few minutes ago, Lowee-Lastation border...

It took a few minutes for the group to reach the border and Jupiter sighed as she was put down on the ground. She just wished that she could have transformed without causing problems. 'Seriously, sis, why do I need to be a secret?' Jupiter asked herself, though she was somewhat thankful she was, after all, the interactions she was having with the CPU Candidates of Lowee and Lastation, not to mention White Heart, would have been different if they knew who she really was. Pulling out her swords, she gawked at the large group of Sergeant Froggy monsters and the Plaid Dolphin that was swimming through the air behind them. How it was able to do that, no one was sure, and everyone just chalked it up to being a boss monster.

"Any suggestions?" Uni asked as she called upon her large gun cannon. "Ever see anything like this?"

Jupiter shook her head. "No, but if we take the boss on we'll leave ourselves open for the small fry. Back me up." She looked at the white-haired CPU Candidate, who nodded at her. "Thanks."

"Miss Uni, what should we do?" Rom asked as she floated near Uni.

"Just wait and see how she handles this, she's pretty good, so we'll go and snipe the enemies from afar." Uni answered and pointed her gun at the group.

"Right!" Both Rom and Ram nodded and rained down ice magic onto the edge of the crowd while Jupiter rushed in.

"First!" Jupiter yelled as she slashed down. "Second!" She spun around, cutting a Sergeant Froggy across the eyes and turning it into data. Connecting the hilts of her swords together, she grinned and twisted them, causing her two swords to become a dual bladed sword and she started to spin the blade above her before rushing in and becoming a literal whirlwind of death.

"Wow! That's so cool!" Ram commented as she rained ice down on some of the froggies from afar.

"Certainly is different." Uni nodded and was about to take a shot at some of the froggies when a tornado sprung up around Jupiter. "What the?"

"This is my goodbye spin!" Jupiter called out as she spun around one last time, finishing in a three point stance while swinging her sword forward and causing the tornado to explode, sending the group of helmeted frogs flying everywhere.

"That was cool!" Rom cheered, before gasping as the Plaid Dolphin rushed at Jupiter. "Look out! Ice Coffin!"

"Huh?" Jupiter looked up and then over her shoulder to see the Dolphin almost on her. A blast of ice caused the thing to flinch. Several shots rang out as Uni tagged the creature.

"We got this one, Jupiter, jump back so you don't get hit." Uni called out and charged up a strong attack. "EX-Multi Blaster!" She yelled as a powerful stream of energy was charged up while Jupiter jumped away from it.

"Ready Ram?" Rom asked, getting a nod from her sister as they crossed their staves.

"Yes."

"Total Eternal Force Blizzard!" The two yelled at the same time as a tornado of snow and ice was blasted out at the Plaid Dolphin, engulfing and quickly turning it into a pillar of ice.

The next moment Uni's attack hit the pillar, shattering it and blowing the Plaid Dolphin into bits.

"That wasn't so hard." Ram grinned and looked at Jupiter and gave her a thumbs up. "Thanks for dealing with the froggies!"

"Well, if you three weren't taking out the edges, it would have been a lot harder." Jupiter smiled at her. "I'm pretty good at crowd control." Though if she had been in HDD that tornado would have blown those froggies all the way into Leanbox.

...Possibly.

"Still..." Uni frowned softly. "That was unusual, monsters don't team up like that unless something's really wrong."

"Would a big, scary red and black Dragon count as something really wrong?" Rom asked, her eyes wide as she looked up, causing Uni, Ram and Jupiter to look up as well, just as said scary Dragon came crashing down where the Candidates were.

Uni screamed as she was slashed across the back, destabilizing her HDD form and returning her to her human form completely unconscious and sent her tumbling through the air helplessly.

"Miss Uni!" Rom called out and sighed as Jupiter caught her from below. "Thanks, Miss Jupiter!"

"Ice Coffin!" Ram yelled and blasted the Dragon with ice, gasping as the creature was seemingly unaffected by it. "No way!"

"What kind of Ancient Dragon is this?" Jupiter asked as she put Uni down and her swords glowed before she started to swing them. "Multi Slash Blade Barrage!" She swung her swords over and over again. Unlike her sister's Slash Wave, her version was made of energy blades that traveled through the air in an arc. The attack hit the Dragon and did nothing more than cause it to look at her. "Ah nerts!"

Letting out a growl, the Dragon leaned back, its mouth igniting before a large ball of fire was launched at Jupiter and Uni.

"Total Eternal Force Blizzard!" Rom and Ram yelled at the same time as they blasted the attack with their combination attack, causing it to evaporate before the tornado slammed into the Dragon, sending it sliding backwards several feet.

"Got it!" Ram cheered. "We're the best!"

"Uh huh!" Rom nodded, smiling before her eyes widened and she trembled in fear. "N...No way! Look!"

Other than some ice on its chest, the Dragon was completely unaffected by the attack.

Jupiter looked at the creature and trembled. 'Should I go HDD? If I do it'll cause problems, but if I don't we'll all die.'

An image of her sister at her desk, head buried in her arms and sobbing filled her mind and Jupiter nodded. 'The political fallout can be dealt with, but if we die that's it! I won't leave my sister all alone!'

"Hey!" Jupiter yelled as she caught the Dragon's attention. "Ugly! I'm going to..."

Whatever she was going to say was cut off as a black streak filled the sky as a loud boom was heard. The Dragon was jerked to the side and was toppled over as something hit it hard from the side.

"What was that?!" Rom, Ram and Jupiter all gasped at the same time.

"Infinite Slash!"

The Candidates watched in awe as the Dragon was hit over and over from various sides before a glowing sword slashed upwards across its chest, knocking it onto its back before said sword ended up impaling it from above. The black blur that had hit it landed in-between the candidates and the Dragon, revealing a white haired woman with green eyes, a black body suit, blue wings and a power symbol in her eyes.

'That's Black Heart!' Jupiter gasped in shock. She was thankful that the CPU had shown up when she did, but wondered why she was here.

Black Heart snapped her fingers and dozens upon dozens of slashes surrounded and stabbed the Dragon before it exploded into data. "Are you all alright?" She asked, her voice full of authority. Her eyes widened as she saw Uni laying on the ground. "Uni!" She made her way over to her sister and sighed in relief as she saw that the girl didn't seem to have any serious injuries on her.

"Miss Noire!" Rom floated down as she and Ram turned back into their human forms. "Thank you."

"I heard there was a Tiamat that was rampaging in this area." Black Heart informed her. "I wonder if it was from that volcano that became active recently." She muttered to herself and shook her head, it wasn't important right now. "Anyway, with how many people who were in danger from the monster, I rushed in as fast as I could and when I saw all of you fighting the creature I pushed myself to go even faster than I normally could." She looked up as she felt a familiar presence flying towards them. "Late as usual, Blanc?"

White Heart sneered at Black Heart while she panted softly. "What the hell happened?" All she knew was a Tiamat was in the area, nothing else.

"Apparently the monsters around here were attacking civilians." Jupiter spoke up. "We dealt with the monsters but then as we wondered why they were acting like that a giant red and black Dragon, um, Lady Black Heart called it a Tiamat?"

White Heart's eyes narrowed. "So it really was a Tiamat? I had hoped there wasn't one, but what the hell is one of those things doing outside of caves and dungeons?!"

"It might have been from the volcano that became active recently." Black Heart offered to her. "Perhaps even a Dragon like that doesn't like to take lava baths."

White Heart nodded as she calmed her breathing down and looked at her sisters, then Jupiter and then Uni and fought the urge to sigh in relief or break down crying, at least they were still alive. "I see. Noire, you saved my sisters, huh?" Black Heart nodded at her. "Thank you. Come, let's get your sister back to my Basilicom so she can get some rest and heal up."

Black Heart nodded and picked Uni up gently. Looking at Jupiter, she gave her a small smile. "I saw you try to get the beast's attention. You're pretty brave for someone who stutters over her words when talking to a Goddess."

"Here." White Heart looked at Jupiter. "I'll give you a lift back." She narrowed her eyes as Jupiter gulped and took a small step backwards. "I'm not going to bite and it's faster than walking."

"We'll take her!" Ram said as she and Rom got behind Jupiter and each of them grabbed an arm.

"Fine." White Heart grumbled as she took off, followed by Black Heart and the White Sisters. 'Why is she so afraid of me? Did I do something to her?'

Try as she might, she couldn't think of anything she had done to the girl to make her so afraid. 'She's too young to have seen us fight in the war directly, so what's going on?'

(-)

A bit later...

"Thanks, Blanc." Noire said as she and the other CPU sat in Lowee's medical ward. After hearing the medical staff confirm that Uni's condition was not critical, Noire found herself able to relax. 'I'm glad that she didn't get too badly hurt, but what if I had been just a few moments later?'

"It's the least I could do for you." Blanc replied to her before sighing softly. "You saw it too. Why would someone who can face a Tiamat down seem terrified of me?"

"I don't know." Noire shook her head. "It doesn't make sense to me either. Did you do something to her?"

Blanc shook her head. "No, oh!" Her eyes widened. "Financier did say something about the fact that she may have been fed anti-CPU propaganda growing up."

Noire groaned as she heard that. "That shit again?" It wasn't the first time that Noire had heard of people stirring up trouble over it. She could sympathize with some of the points being made, how the CPUs had fought a meaningless war for ages that devastated Gamindustri and caused endless problems for the citizens. There was even an older woman who had wanted to have nations ruled by the people instead of a CPU. However, no one had seen her for years to get answers out of her after she disappeared several years ago.

Noire wondered if Nepgear and Planeptune had to deal with similar issues before dismissing it. It wasn't like this information was too public anyway. 'Hopefully she's not giving them a safe haven or encouraging the anti-CPU forces in the world.'

"So what should we do with her? If she's scared of us..." Blanc trailed off and Noire tapped her chin.

"As much as I hate to admit it, Vert might be the best to deal with her." Noire looked at Blanc. "She is a lot more empathetic than you are and it's easier for her to talk to people about their problems than it is for me."

Blanc wanted to be offended by that comment, but could only nod. "You're right, she does keep trying to be friends with that brat after all."

"That's not exactly fair to Nepgear and you know it." Noire pointed out, having a soft spot for the Planeptune CPU like Vert did. "But if we just ask her to go, I doubt she will, so..."

Blanc raised an eyebrow and looked at Uni's sleeping form. "Your sister has no problem being around her, same with mine. If we suggest that they take Jupiter to Leanbox, it'll be easier."

"And we call ahead to tell Vert what's going on." Noire nodded. Looking at Uni, she sighed softly and ran a hand through her unconscious sister's hair. "...I almost lost her today, Blanc. If I had been even a minute later, I don't know if she'd be here right now."

The shorter CPU gave Noire a gentle look and nodded. "That wasn't something anyone expected. The guard told me that it was just Sergeant Froggy monsters and a Plaid Dolphin. If I had known there was a Tiamat in the area I would have went there first and made the defense force deal with the large group of monsters themselves."

Noire nodded and looked at her younger sister. "Uni..."

The younger girl just lay on the bed, sleeping soundly.

(-)

"Do you think Miss Uni will be okay?" Rom asked in worry as she, Ram and Jupiter all sat in the twins's room. "I'm worried about her."

"She's fine! She's really tough! But that Dragon was really strong!" Ram exclaimed, looking scared at the thought of facing it again.

Jupiter meanwhile had her phone out. "I need to call sis, okay?"

They both nodded and went back to talking.

(-)

Nepgear's eyes lit up slightly as she saw that her sister was calling her. Picking up her phone, she answered it. "Hello, Jupiter, how are things?"

_"Pretty good, had a run in with some strong monsters, but they're gone now."_

Nepgear nodded at hearing that. "So long as you're safe, that's good."

_"Hey, sis, how strong is a Tiamat?"_

Nepgear frowned in confusion. "Extremely. Unless I have a bunch of end-game equipment on me or decided to over-level until I'm beyond the maximum normally, I would steer clear of them. Don't tell me you ran into one in a cave or something?"

_"No, just was wondering. Also, do they only hang out in caves?"_

"Mostly." Nepgear narrowed her eyes. "Jupiter, I'm going to have to call you back, I need to see someone about something."

_"Don't kill anyone."_

"I won't." Nepgear said and hung up. "Oh, Anonydeath, we need to talk." She said softly and left the Basilicom.

(-)

"Oh honey, I didn't expect you back so soon." Anonydeath looked at Nepgear as she walked into the room.

"Tell me something, Anonydeath, are there any reports of a Tiamat running around and causing problems?"

"Not in Planeptune." Anonydeath answered instantly. "I have heard that there was an unusual monster problem in Lowee just a few minutes ago. So much so that Little Noire had to jump in to help and even her younger sister got hurt."

Nepgear closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Was there a Tiamat in Lowee?"

Anonydeath looked at her and shook his head. "I don't know, I'll look into it."

"I see..." Nepgear sighed and nodded. "Thank you, that's all."

Seeing Nepgear turn to walk off, Anonydeath quickly stood up, hovered over to her and put his hand on her shoulder to stop her. "I get that you're worried about your sister, but you need to trust her." Nepgear was silent as he leaned in. "Honey, even if you can't trust me, she's family. If you can't trust that she'll be okay, who can you trust?"

Nepgear screwed her eyes shut and nodded. "You're right."

"Honey, if you need to talk or just want someone to give you a hug, you can always ask, I'm always here." He sighed as she jerked away from him and walked off.

Nepgear took a deep breath to keep herself calm and left the building.

(-)

After taking a walk to calm down, Nepgear returned to the Basilicom and nodded to the staff who greeted her.

"Lady Nepgear!" One of the staff members, a short blonde girl with a perky attitude, spoke up. "One of the game developers just called to inform us that they had to delay that shooter game again, Dukem Forever."

Nepgear sighed heavily. That was one of those games that had been in development hell for longer than she had been alive. "Thank you, B-Sha, for informing me. Please see to it that the appropriate people know about the delay."

"Not a problem!" She gave Nepgear a thumbs up. "Um, hey, boss, can I have an advance on my paycheck? Rent's coming up in a few days and..."

"It's fine." Nepgear nodded, knowing that some people had trouble with money. "I'll get the funds forwarded to your account today."

"Thanks, boss!" B-Sha smiled at her. When Nepgear walked off, she sighed, wishing that she could help her CPU smile. 'It's the least I can do after she saved me from that burning building six years ago.' If the only thing she could do to help was to work as many hours as she could while smiling at Nepgear every time she saw the CPU, that's what she would do.

There wasn't a single person in Planeptune that wouldn't do the same if they thought there was a chance to help their CPU smile, even if just once.

Next to B-Sha, an older woman with long blue hair sighed softly. "B-Sha, you need to manage your money better."

"I can't help it, Lei-Lei!" B-Sha smiled at the older woman. "It just runs out before payday is all!"

"Stop spending all your money on kids that aren't yours and start a family if you like them so much." The woman said. "And don't call me Lei-Lei."

B-Sha gave her a confused look. "But you're Lei-Lei, aren't you? Besides, I'm too young to start a family just yet. What about you? Aren't you thirty?"

Lei-Lei teared up and started whining about how it wasn't her fault and how she couldn't find someone who was willing to put up with her stuttering and how she never got a boyfriend when she was younger.

(-)

Sitting behind her desk, Nepgear looked at the paperwork and shook her head. "I... Not today I can't." She stood up and left the room. There wasn't too much left on the desk anyway, but she wanted to make sure that she could focus on it completely. With her worries about Jupiter plaguing her mind, there was no doubt that she wouldn't be able to focus on her work until she calmed down.

Walking through the hallways of the Basilicom, she walked past her sister's room and sighed softly as she ran a hand over the door. 'Remember how we didn't even have a room for you when you were born? Remember how you needed to sleep in my room until we got a room ready for you?'

She wondered if Jupiter remembered.

Nepgear certainly remembered the day Jupiter was born. It was one she'd never forget.

* * *

So if you were wondering how Jupiter was born... You'll have to wait another week for the flashback! BWAHAHAHAHA!

BTW, has anyone heard of the Mega Miracle Force game by Idea Factory and Compile Heart? I saw the preview for it, got really excited because it looked like we'd see Big Nep interacting with the Ultra Dimension CPUs...

And then I find out it's a mobile game.

Between that and the Nep Nep Chaos PSVita game that never came out of Japan, I'm a bit sad. I really hope they revisit the Chaos forms in another spin-off or something. Because that would be awesome.

Remember back in Episode 1 of the Neptunia anime? In the English dub, Neptune goes "what EVER, Noire, you know you love me". This fic makes me go "we all love you, Nep Nep" every time I hear that line.

Time for a Nepstation!

* * *

"Welcome to Nepstation, with your hosts Blanc and..."

"C-Sha. Hey, Blanny, you okay?"

"Not really, no."

"You know what you need?"

"Huh?"

"A big hug and a kiss."

"NOT IN PUBLIC!"

"Oh, well let's finish this up so we can get some privacy then."

"That's not what I meant either and you know it!"

"Aww! Anyway, the kids are heading to Leanbox! What will await them in the Land of Green Pastures? You know, it feels like this story is missing something."

"...What?"

"Fanservice!"

"Why did you just take your top off?!"

"I'm wearing a bra. And why are you blushing?"

"No reason! Put your shirt back on, your bra isn't hiding anything!"

"Fine. It looks like Blanny wants my breasts all to herself."

"THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT!"

"Anyway, I'm going to take Blanny and have some private time."

"Put me down! HEY! C-SHA!"

"Hee hee hee, don't worry, Blanny, this isn't canon anyway."

"...Did we even talk about what's going to happen next?"


	12. Interlude 2: Fated Meeting

Hyperdimension Neptunia belongs to Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Surprise! Before we get to Leanbox, I thought I'd drop this.

* * *

Interlude 2

The Fated Meeting

Twitching as she zeroed in on the source of the hack, Nepgear wondered just who would be doing such a thing in Planeptune. No one in Planeptune had expressed any real complaints about her work ethic, and ever since she had implemented the new system Planeptune's Shares had started to surge in ways that she couldn't have predicted when she came up with the idea months ago.

In fact, Nepgear had severely underestimated how much of a perpetual feedback loop the new system had with Shares.

At least she wouldn't have to worry about people turning on her or abandoning her anytime soon.

Looking at the device in her hand, she raised an eyebrow and looked at the abandoned factory. 'This was scheduled to be torn down this week.' Part of her wondered if maybe it was a teenager just playing a prank.

'Still, who's ever hacking our systems is pretty skilled.' Igniting her beam sword, she cut open the doors to the factory and walked inside. She had expected a bunch of robot drones or something waiting for her.

What she got was a pink robot hovering in mid-air. 'No, not a robot, that's a power armor.'

"Well..." The pink power armor spoke up, an effeminate, though distinctly male, voice spoke up. "You're the first person to actually find out that I was hacking their systems." The power armor turned to look at Nepgear and she saw that the face was covered by a green screen of sorts. "...Wow, I know that you CPUs are pretty, but you really are something else."

Nepgear didn't react as she looked at him. "So you're the one hacking into Planeptune then?"

"I was mostly doing it to see what I could do, but man, this Nepstarter program I just found out..." There was actual amazement and awe in his voice. "If the other nations developed this, I guarantee that there'd never be a shortage of shares for any nation ever again."

"I suppose you're going to sell the secrets to the other nations then?" Nepgear narrowed her eyes as there was a flash of light and she transformed. "I won't abide by people stealing my nation's secrets."

"Oh?" The pink power armor seemed surprised. "You're even prettier now."

"Be quiet." Lilac Heart said and pointed her gunblade at the power armor, blasting at him, only to find a barrier had protected him.

"Yeesh! Not even a little consideration for your enemy?" The voice sounded rather hurt as the power armor floated away. "At least allow me to introduce myself. I'm Anonydeath."

Lilac Heart watched him float up and away from her. "I'm Lilac Heart, and you can either surrender and go to prison or you can run away and I'll gut you like a fish."

"YEESH! You're such a cold hearted bitch! Even little Noire isn't AAAAH!" The next thing Anonydeath knew, Lilac Heart was in front of him, slashing downwards and through his shields, sending him to the ground with a loud crash.

Before Anonydeath could react, Lilac Heart landed on him, straddling his body with her gunblade pointed at his throat. "For your sake, never mention that murderer's name around me again."

"Ah heh heh... Sure, but, um... The way you're straddling me..." Anonydeath's faceplate turned from green to red. "It's kind of lewd."

Lilac Heart just tilted her head and looked down. "I don't see how this is lewd."

"...Your butt's touching my crotch, if that helps."

Lilac Heart said nothing and pressed her gunblade against his throat even harder. "If I eliminate you right now, that won't be a problem, will it?"

Anonydeath was starting to sweat buckets and he wondered what he could do to get this girl off of him. "I'd rather not fight, and I don't want to go to prison, so what would it take to get out of this with my body in one piece?"

"I don't know, spy on the other nations so I know what they're up to and don't have to worry about them trying to kill me or destroy my nation." Lilac Heart said off-handedly.

"Is that all? I've already hacked their Basilicoms and set cameras up all over so I can watch them whenever I want." Anonydeath was surprised as Lilac Heart showed actual emotion for the first time.

"...If you work for me, gather information on the other CPUs for me and don't betray me..." Lilac Heart trailed off. "Well?"

"Honey, if it means that I get to work with someone so pretty on a daily basis, then sure."

Lilac Heart narrowed her eyes but said nothing as she got up. "Get up, this cold hearted bitch is your boss from now on, and if you betray me Anonydeath..." She trailed off as a humming noise was heard as her gunblade charged up with power. "Capiche?"

Anonydeath nodded at her. "Sure thing, Honey."

"And my name is Nepgear... Or Lilac Heart if you prefer." Lilac Heart narrowed her eyes as Anonydeath got up.

"Got it, Honey."

Lilac Heart resisted the urge to glare at him. She could ignore it. "Just know that if you try to flee I will hunt you down to the ends of Gamindustri and eliminate you personally."

"You sound like an overly attached girlfriend." Anonydeath clapped his hands and started bouncing up and down. "Oh! It's so sudden! We just met after all! Don't you think we should get to know each other a bit more before you decide that you're my girlfriend?"

Lilac Heart raised an eyebrow, though her face was showing pure incredulity. "...What?"

"I mean, I've always thought that it would be nice to be close to a CPU and while I've had my sights set on Little Noire, I certainly wouldn't complain about having you making me be not a pure maiden anymore."

"...What?"

Anonydeath nodded as he tapped his chin. "Yes, indeed, you might want to be my girlfriend, and I'm fine with that and perhaps in time we could be something more than just that?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Lilac Heart said, her eyebrow twitching. For some reason she felt the urge to get a blunt object and hit him with it. "Since you'll be working for me, we'll work out details of payment and other things."

"Sure thing, Honey! Oh, this will be so awesome! Working for such a cute and pretty CPU! Why! It's enough to make my pure maiden heart flutter in pure happiness!" Anonydeath gushed happily as he started humming to himself.

For some reason, Lilac Heart felt like rubbing her forehead to fight off an impending headache and she didn't know why.

* * *

And that's how Anonydeath and Nepgear first met. There was more I wanted to add, but I chose against it because it ended up going into the "tell, don't show" category.

...

More Nepstation!

* * *

"Welcome to Nepstation, dears! It's your lovely host Anonydeath and..."

"Pea! Hey, daddy! What's a Napstation?"

"Nepstation, Peashy, and we're just here to talk about stuff."

"Oh. Well Jeptuna is going to go visit Bert!"

"...Jeptuna?"

"Uh huh! She's Neptuna's younger sister too and Jup, um... Her name's hard to say! So I call her Jeptuna!"

"...You know, why are you here anyway? You aren't in the story."

"Nah uh! I am too! See? I have the author's notes for the future!"

"REALLY? Lemme see! OOOOH! I like this plan!"

"Uh huh! We're out of time? Aww! Pea wanted to show off her new bikini for Yellow Heart!"

"Peashy, itsy bitsy teeny weenie thong bikinis are not appropriate for little girls to wear."

"But Yellow Heart isn't a little girl, daddy! Oh! Time to go! This is Pea..."

"...And Anonydeath signing off."

* * *

You are all now picturing Yellow Heart (not Peashy) in a micro thong bikini that barely covers any naughty bits. Have fun with that!


	13. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

In which we go to Leanbox and meet some people we haven't seen in awhile. Also, this is how Jupiter came into the world.

* * *

Nepgear and Histoire stood in front of Planeptune's Sharicite crystal as it glowed and acted in ways that the CPU had never seen before. "Histoire, what's going on?" Nepgear asked, wondering why it was glowing so brightly, not to mention pulsating with power.

"I do believe..." Histoire started but covered her eyes as the glow suddenly exploded and blinded them temporarily.

"What the..." Nepgear grimaced and shook her head. When she could see normally, her eyes widened as she saw the person in front of her. "Nep..." She whispered. The girl's hair, the girl's eyes, the height, that was all Neptune.

"Hello," her voice, however, wasn't. "I'm Jupiter."

"Oh." Nepgear couldn't keep her disappointment out of her voice. 'She looks so much like Neptune.' She could see the differences though, the girl's hair was a slightly different shade, the style wasn't quite the same as her elder sister's style, her outfit wasn't a parka hoodie, instead it looked like a basketball uniform shirt or something similar, Nepgear wasn't sure, she didn't know sports too well.

"Hello, I am Histoire, acting Oracle of Planeptune." The tiny blonde book fairy smiled at the short girl.

"I am Nepgear, CPU of Planeptune." Nepgear answered almost automatically. "I guess that makes me your big sister then." Mentally, Nepgear wondered why this girl was here. While Planeptune's shares were really strong, she didn't think there was any reason for a CPU Candidate to be born.

"Big sister?" Jupiter blinked a few times, before smiling widely and running to Nepgear, hugging her tightly, much to the CPU's shock. "Hooray! I got a really pretty big sister!"

Nepgear was so stunned that she couldn't even react, though for some reason her face felt warm and her body tingled in a way that was almost enjoyably happy.

Jupiter loosened the hug and pulled back. "Sis, are you okay?" She asked, confusion on her face.

Nepgear blinked and rapidly shook her head before doing something she hadn't done since her sister had been alive. Gently wrapping her arms around Jupiter, she whispered to her. "Yes, I'm okay, thank you for asking."

Jupiter smiled and hugged her sister tightly.

'She's not Neptune... She's her own person, Nepgear, don't treat her like Neptune or as a replacement, it's not fair to her.' Nepgear thought to herself in an attempt to not see the girl as Neptune. She didn't know if she could follow her own advice, but feeling the warmth from her younger sister's hug, it made her want to try.

(-)

Nepgear sighed as she recalled that memory. "Jupiter..." She whispered softly and entered her sister's room. "It's been awhile since I was in here." She said to herself as she walked around the room, noticing the toy robots that were scattered over her sister's desk, a few other things that were on the floor and some other stuff.

Walking over to the desk, Nepgear tilted her head as she saw a large piece of paper with a drawing on it. Picking it up, her eyes started to water as she saw it was her sister's drawing.

It wasn't a masterpiece drawing, but rather, it was a simple looking picture of herself, of Jupiter, of Histoire, all sitting around at the table eating together.

"Sister's awesome stew..." Nepgear whispered as she read what was written on it, sniffling as tears fell freely from her eyes. "J...Jupiter..."

She'd have to make more of that stew if her sister liked it so much.

(-)

"I see..." Vert said over the video line. "I do deeply apologize for not being there, but recently there was a surge of robberies and counterfeit games being made here in Leanbox that has required much of my attention. I think it's mostly under control and I've had to enact some strict policies to counter it. In fact, I would suggest that you two be on the lookout for an increase of piracy and the like."

"Thanks for the head's up." Noire said. "There's another reason we're calling you. Recently our sisters made friends with a girl named Jupiter, you remember that picture that Blanc sent you of our sisters sleeping and cuddling?"

"Ah yes," Vert had a large smile on her face. "I'm not the only one who enjoyed it." She winked at the two. "Why do you bring it up though?"

"Jupiter seems to have been fed anti-CPU garbage when she was growing up." Blanc answered. "She's absolutely terrified of me but was willing to face down a Tiamat without any problem."

"And as much as we hate to admit it, you're better suited to helping her than we are." Noire had a look on her face that told Vert that she really was bothered by that.

Vert nodded at hearing that. "I can certainly try. I know there's a couple of people here who will be just delighted to see your sisters again."

Both Noire and Blanc gave her a small smile, knowing who she was talking about.

(-)

An hour later...

Uni groaned as she slowly woke up. "Where..." The room was a bit blurry and she had to blink several times to get the blurs to take on a definitive shape.

"Hello, Uni." A familiar voice spoke up and she looked to the side to see Noire sitting by her side. "Are you feeling okay?" She asked, a soft expression on her face.

"Noire?" Uni blinked a few times as she tried to think about what happened. "Am I back home?"

"No, you're at the Basilicom in Lowee." Noire shook her head. "Do you remember what happened?"

"I..." Uni frowned as she sat up. "I remember looking up and then..." Her eyes widened in shock. "That's right! That Dragon! What happened?!"

Noire put her hand on her sister's shoulder. "Calm down. That Dragon was a Tiamat. It's rare to see them outside of caves or dungeons, when I got the report one was rampaging near the border, I went up to investigate and saw you got hurt."

"Oh." Uni slumped, causing Noire to look at her in concern, not that Uni saw it as she looked at her legs. "I failed, huh?" The next thing Uni knew, Noire was hugging her, shocking the candidate, as she rarely got hugs from her elder sister. "N...Noire?"

"Uni, you didn't fail." Noire said to her. "Even I, Vert or Blanc would have trouble with a Tiamat, and you were caught by surprise."

Uni trembled, her eyes tearing up as she hugged Noire, burying her face in her sister's chest. "Why? Why did I... Why did I fail?!"

Noire rubbed the young girl's back. "You didn't fail, Uni. It was just bad information, that's all." She sighed as she felt her sister sob. "You don't need to push yourself so hard, you can rely on others too."

"But I'm Lastation's CPU Candidate, if I can't succeed, then..."

"Nothing." Noire said. "Nothing bad will happen. No one will think less of you because of this. You can rely on me, on Rom, on Ram, on Vert and on Blanc if you need to." Feeling Uni sniffle and nod slowly, Noire mentally sighed and kept hugging her sister.

'If only there was a CPU Candidate that you could be close to.' She thought to herself. Being mentally older than Rom or Ram and not having anyone that could understand what she had to go through that was her age was hard on Uni. 'If only Vert had gotten a little sister.'

Watching them from the door frame, Blanc frowned softly. Even though she had friends and her sisters who helped her more than they knew, she still couldn't help but feel that it just felt wrong. 'This world is just so damn depressing.'

(-)

A few minutes later, Uni found herself looking at her lap in embarrassment. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Blanc shook her head. "Listen, Uni. Noire and I have a request for you." Uni looked up at her in confusion, tear streaks still on her face. "We'd like for you, Rom and Ram to take Jupiter to Leanbox for a few days tomorrow."

"Huh?" Uni was confused. Sure, Leanbox was beautiful and had some nice beaches, but she was still confused as to why she was being asked to go to Leanbox.

"We think Jupiter was fed Anti-CPU propaganda growing up." Noire told her. "She's absolutely terrified of Blanc and I doubt she'll have much of a good opinion about me. You know how Vert's helped you, Rom and Ram out with your problems in the past."

Uni nodded. Sometimes she needed to vent her frustration with stuff and Vert was always willing to listen and offer some advice or let her spend a few days when the stress of ruling Lastation got to her. "But she doesn't seem to have a problem with me. Or your sisters, Blanc."

"This is true and I don't know why that is, but if she's with Vert maybe she'll see that not all of us CPUs are bad." Blanc answered. "Besides," she gave Uni a small smile, "there's a couple of people who will be delighted to see you."

Uni's eyes lit up in delight. Sure, they weren't CPUs or anything, but the two were friends and always did as much as they could with the three Candidates. Like that one summer they hosted a pool party just for the CPU Candidates because the CPUs were busy on R-18 island.

"Sure!"

(-)

The next day Jupiter found herself, Uni, Rom and Ram taking an express transport to Leanbox. Looking at Uni, she smiled softly. "I'm glad that you're okay."

"Yeah, Lowee's Basilicom has some good healing facilities. Plus with my shares I won't even have to worry about scarring." She smiled at that. "Anyway, sis was worried about me so she said I could take a few more days off and suggested we go to Leanbox. It's really pretty this time of year."

Jupiter nodded and was glad that she didn't need to wear specialized clothes anymore to keep from freezing parts of her body off.

"Plus we have a couple of friends we haven't seen in awhile!" Ram grinned. "We'd see them more often if not for..."

"Look!" Rom pointed as they cleared Leanbox space.

"Wow!" Jupiter's eyes sparkled as she saw the lush green forests of Leanbox. "It's so pretty!"

"Yep." Uni smiled as they flew into Leanbox. "Hey, hope you don't mind, but our friends live at the Basilicom." She sighed as Jupiter tensed up. "Don't worry, they're not CPUs."

"Yeah!" Rom smiled as she thought about her friends. "They're really nice! You'll like them."

"Well..." Jupiter trailed off as she looked at the green and white building in the distance. "I suppose..." She didn't want to even think about meeting Green Heart.

After all, according to Nepgear, Green Heart was the worst of the three CPUs.

(-)

"Welcome to Leanbox's Basilicom." The receptionist said as Uni, Rom, Ram and Jupiter walked in. "How can I... Oh! Uni! Rom! Ram!" Her eyes lit up happily. "It's been so long."

"Hi, IF!" Ram smiled at the brown-haired woman and waved. "How are you doing?"

"As well as can be expected, I guess." IF shrugged at her. She looked at the purple haired girl. "Who's your new friend?"

Before Uni could answer, the door to the back of the Basilicom opened up and a girl with poofy strawberry blonde hair walked out holding a tea tray. "Iffy, it's time for... Oh!" Her eyes widened as she saw the CPU Candidates. "Uni! Rom! Ram!"

"Hi, Compa!" Uni walked up to her and took the tea tray from her. "Let me get that." Taking it off of Compa's hands, she walked over to the desk and put it in front of IF.

"Thanks, Uni." Compa smiled.

"Miss Compa, how have you been?" Rom asked.

"I'm good. Being the live-in nurse at the Basilicom means I don't have too many patients." Compa was a little sad that she didn't have to take care of too many people, but at least she could help the people around her.

"Oh?" Ram spoke up, her eyes sparkling. "You're no longer an apprentice nurse?"

"That's right." Compa smiled at them. "I'm now a full-time nurse, registered with Leanbox. I plan on getting registered in Lowee and Lastation too, in case I ever go traveling." Looking at IF, she pulled out a bottle from her pocket. "Okay, Iffy, it's time for your medicine."

"Yes, nurse." IF sighed melodramatically as she took the pill that Compa offered her before washing it down with tea.

"Are you sick?" Jupiter asked, being mostly ignored up until this point. "If so, shouldn't you be in bed?"

"Oh!" Compa's eyes lit up as she saw Jupiter. "Who's your friend, Uni?"

"This is Jupiter." Uni gestured towards the purple haired girl. "She's traveling around Gamindustri to try and see the world."

IF smiled lightly. "The days when I did that were fun."

"Iffy..." Compa pouted lightly. "I'm..."

"Compa, you didn't do anything wrong, okay?" IF sighed, this wasn't the first time they had this conversation. "It was just a surprise, that's all. It sucks that I can't do anything like I used to, but that's the way it goes."

"Um..." Jupiter raised her hand as she watched Uni, Rom and Ram all nod at what IF was saying. "For those of us who have no idea what's going on, can you fill us in? Because it feels like some of us came in the middle of a conversation that we should just know without knowing."

"It'll be easier to show you." IF said as she reached under the table and pulled out a crutch before sliding it under her left arm and hobbling around the table to stand in front of Jupiter completely.

Jupiter looked at IF and gasped as she saw the latter's left leg as the brown haired girl was wearing shorts and a black halter top with a long, blue coat over her shoulders. Her leg was full of scars and several bite marks on it. "What... What happened?"

IF grimaced and sighed in relief as Compa grabbed her and helped her sit down back at her chair. "Compa and I were gathering materials for some medicine the hospital needed. I was hired as her bodyguard and we went into one of Leanbox's volcanoes a few years ago. My job was to clear the monsters out, her job was to gather the materials. It went fine for awhile, but..."

Compa sighed. "Iffy took out some monsters when a big, ole mean Flame Fenrir came out from behind a rock and caught Iffy by surprise, and tore into her leg really badly."

"If not for Lady Green Heart..." IF sighed heavily. "Well, I got rushed to the hospital as fast as possible," which hadn't been that fast, all things considered, "and they did all they could for my leg, but it wasn't enough. Ever since then my leg's been slowly deteriorating." Some days it hurt even when she was laying down and had the thing elevated.

"The doctors said it would be easier on Iffy if she just got rid of her leg." Compa looked really troubled. "Iffy didn't want to."

"I'd rather have this as a reminder of what happened than have it removed." IF told her. "Besides, when I'm at the guild I can help newbie hunters out by showing them what happens when you're caught by surprise or without enough healing items on hand."

"But then you'd get a really cool metal leg!" Ram protested, causing IF to smirk at her.

"Yeah, maybe, but I'd be worried that I'd be on my own and it would break or something and then I'd be worse off than I am now."

"Don't you have regeneration tanks here in Leanbox?" Jupiter asked, causing everyone to look at her in confusion. "...You don't?"

"I wish." IF laughed. "Then I could be like "I'm going to take a bath" and get better in a few minutes."

'More like six to twelve hours.' Jupiter thought to herself. "If you could..."

"If there was some way to save my leg, then yeah, I'd be all over it." IF sighed and shook her head. "But sadly, such a thing just doesn't exist. I've had doctors from Lowee and Lastation look at my leg and they say the same thing. It's going to just deteriorate and cause me more trouble in the future."

"We had to get a wheelchair for Iffy when she's not working." Compa said. "Even getting up at night to go to the bathroom or to take a bath is really hard on her."

"IF..." Uni looked at the injured girl with sympathetic eyes. "I wish there was something we could do."

"It's okay." IF waved her off. "Not like you can do anything about it."

Jupiter had a determined look on her face as she pulled out her phone. "Can I take your picture?" IF blinked and nodded as Jupiter snapped a couple of pictures of her and then of Compa. "Um..." Her face went red. "Is there a restroom..."

Compa smiled and pointed at the door on the other side of the room. "Through those doors and down the hallway to your left."

"Thanks!" Jupiter ran off.

(-)

After getting into the restroom, Jupiter made a quick phone call. "Come on, pick up..."

Exactly thirty seconds later, just before the phone would have automatically hung up there was an answer. _"Hello? Jupiter, is something wrong?"_

"Histoire, can you write up some travel papers to Planeptune Hospital for two people in Leanbox?"

_"...Jupiter, what's going on?"_

"There's these two girls, one's named IF, she got hurt helping a nurse out and her leg got really screwed up."

_"You know that I can't just bypass your sister like this..."_

"Don't I have any authority as a CPU Candidate?" Jupiter asked, her voice soft so that no one could hear her in case they were listening in.

_"...You should, yes. If you have pictures..."_

"Yeah, I'll send them to you, hang on." Pulling her phone away from her ear, she quickly sent Histoire the images of IF and Compa that she took. "IF's the brown haired girl, she's the one who needs the regeneration tank, the other girl is Compa and she needs to go with because Compa is IF's nurse."

_"I can do it, but it will take me at least three days to finalize the paperwork and then another few days before everything can be sent to Leanbox. I do need your sister's approval though."_

Jupiter winced, that wouldn't be an easy sell. "Histoire, please..."

_"...Jupiter, there's some things I can't do legally."_

"Then..."

_"I said legally. Your sister will not be happy with me, I suspect, but..."_

Jupiter's eyes lit up happily. "Then you'll do it!?"

_"Yes, but you have to realize that if your sister finds out what I'm doing that both of us could be in a lot of trouble."_

"I'm already in trouble for leaving Planeptune, Histoire." Jupiter responded. "Thanks, I'll talk to you later." She hung up.

(-)

In Planeptune...

"Urgh, we're done for the day."

"Hey, Lei-Lei!" B-Sha smiled at the older woman. "I'm going to head down to the arcade, you want to come with? I feel like we haven't been very close lately."

Lei-Lei shook her head. "We were never close. And no, I'm feeling tired today." Her eyes went blank and white as she glared at B-Sha. "And don't call me Lei-Lei!"

"Yeah, but it's been really bad the past few months, and anyway that's your name!" B-Sha replied and scampered off. "Well, see ya!"

"I swear..." Lei-Lei groaned before getting up and clocking out. "She's so annoying." She rounded a corner and ran into someone. "Hey! You need to... Oh! I'm sorry, Lady Nepgear!"

Nepgear looked at Lei-Lei and nodded. "It's fine. Rough day?"

"You could say that." She nodded. "Have a good night."

Nepgear nodded at her and greeted the night staff that came in before putting a stack of papers in front of one of the receptionists. "This has all been signed and sealed, make sure that it gets to the right people."

"Yes, Lady Nepgear!"

(-)

As she entered her apartment, Lei-Lei rubbed her eyes and sighed, putting her coat on the hanger next to her door before closing the door behind her. Sure, her apartment wasn't much, pretty simple with a small kitchen, a small living room, a small bedroom and a small bathroom, but it was hers.

Flopping down on a love seat in her living room, she let out a small smile as she looked at what was in front of her television. "Time to play some more games, huh?" The smile turned into a grin as she reached in and booted up the console. "Who would think this old system I found a couple years ago would be so much fun?"

She didn't like most modern games and this old system, with its near circular design, white body, red trim and swirl markings with games older than most people in Planeptune really appealed to her.

* * *

What? You thought that the CPUs would be the only ones affected by Neptune not being there?


	14. Interlude 3: Golden Pair

Hyperdimension Neptunia belongs to Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

I really hate the fact that I get so impatient with myself when I have something written. Oh well.

People wanted to know, so here it is!

Here's how Blanc and C-Sha met and became partners!

* * *

"Lady Blanc," a member of the Lowee Basilicom spoke up as she walked into Blanc's office. "There's a matter of importance that you need to deal with."

"What is it?" Blanc looked up from where she was reading Rom and Ram a picture story. "I'm busy."

"A new dungeon was discovered in the Southern mountains near Planeptune." The member said and Blanc twitched. If it was Planeptune, there was always a chance that something bad was going to happen. "The guild dispatched a hunter to go to the area, but a sudden blizzard in the area has caused them to lose communication with the hunter."

Blanc sighed and got up. "Rom, Ram, I'm sorry, I better go deal with this."

"Aww! Lame! Just when we were getting to the good part." Ram pouted.

"Big sis... Can we come with?" Rom asked.

"Sorry, Rom." Blanc smiled at her younger sister softly. "Neither of you can transform yet and if something goes bad, I'd rather you two be here where it's safe than out there."

The twins pouted, but nodded, understanding Blanc's reasoning.

A flash of light and White Heart stood in Blanc's place. Smirking at the twins she ruffled Rom's hair. "It might take me a couple of days, so I want you two to be good girls," she narrowed her eyes at them, "or I'll give you both a big spanking when I get home."

Both of them nodded vigorously and covered their butts as White Heart chuckled and flew off in the direction of the guild. She'd need to get the exact details on this mission.

(-)

Twenty minutes later...

White Heart grimaced as the winds and cold bit into her. Even in HDD where she barely felt anything, this was cold and windy. And she was used to this kind of weather even! "Let's see..." Calling up her HUD, White Heart grimaced, the blizzard was actually interfering with her ability to see where she needed to go.

Still, she had a general idea of where she needed to go.

(-)

After searching for an additional ten minutes, White Heart sighed as she found the cave in question and got out of the blizzard. "Che..." She muttered in annoyance as she wiped the snow off her body while shaking her head to cause what had gotten stuck in her hair to fall out. Taking a deep breath, she allowed her transformation to fade as she turned back to her human form. "Alright, find the hunter, scout out the cave and report back, seems simple enough." Adjusting her hat, the brown-haired CPU started walking into the cave. From what she could see, the cave was a long tunnel, some dripping water off the stalactites in the ceiling and nothing much else.

Blanc continued to walk and found that the cave wasn't a straight shot as she had believed as it started to curve to the side. 'This is going to be another Delphinus situation, isn't it?' The last thing she needed was another cave system that entered into Planeptune.

Hearing the shifting of rocks, Blanc pulled out her hammer and walked forward with caution. "Who's there?" She noticed that the cave started to have branching pathways and she didn't really feel like trying to figure them out.

"Huh?" A young woman's voice was heard as a brown haired woman with a blue berrette poked her head out from one branching pathway. "Oh, hello, didn't expect anyone else to come in here."

Blanc watched as the woman walked out, she was wearing fairly thick pants and a warm-looking coat with fur around the neck and arms, though she saw that the coat was open enough that she could see just how... Endowed the woman was. 'Tch, another Thunder Tits? Give me a freaking break!'

"I'm kind of glad someone showed up, I was getting concerned that I wasn't going to find my way out of this maze." The woman laughed softly and rubbed the back of her head. "Oh! Where are my manners? My name's C-Sha, hunter for the guild. I'm just doing some scouting of this place."

"I'm Blanc, the one the guild called to find you, apparently."

C-Sha blinked and smiled at her. "Wow, you made it here in this weather? Color me impressed, Blanny."

"...Blanny?" Blanc gave her a deadpan stare. "What the hell?"

"I think it's a cute name for such a cute girl." C-Sha smiled while Blanc spluttered and turned red. "Anyway, I was still scouting out the caves here and I discovered something rather unnerving."

"Huh?" Blanc's face was still red, but she was starting to calm down. "What did you discover?"

C-Sha opened up her inventory and dropped a large item in front of the two of them. "This is what I discovered."

"...That's a large head." Blanc noted that the head of whatever creature it was was bigger than she was. "Wait, is this just the skin?!"

"Yep." C-Sha nodded. "Dunno what kind of creature this is, but it left its skin somewhere behind and I'm guessing is the reason this cave suddenly appeared, because I haven't seen any monsters."

Blanc suddenly laughed. "Probably because it ate them all." C-Sha giggled at that. "But I can see that this needs to be dealt with."

C-Sha nodded and pointed at two forking tunnels a bit further away. "Those are the last two in this area that I haven't gone down yet." She tossed something to Blanc, who caught it.

"Sidewalk chalk?" Blanc raised an eyebrow. "I suppose this is an easy way to mark where you've been."

"More importantly, it marks where you haven't been." C-Sha said. "Anyway, how about you take the left one, I'll go down the right path?"

Blanc sighed and nodded. "Very well." She started to walk towards the path in question. "Just be careful."

C-Sha smiled. "Well, it's nice that the CPU of Lowee is concerned about little old me." Blanc gave her a surprised look and she laughed. "I've known who you were the whole time, after all, there's no way just anyone could make it in here in this weather."

Blanc nodded at her. "Very well." Their human forms were an open secret after all. If you knew what the Goddess looked like in human form, then you knew, if you didn't, then you didn't, it was that simple.

"See you soon, Blanny." C-Sha smiled and walked down the tunnel.

Blanc rolled her eyes and went down the tunnel in front of her, making marks on the wall as she went. Sure, it was primitive, but sometimes primitive was best. "After all, if it's stupid but it works, it ain't stupid." Blanc paused as the image of a woman with long dark purple hair that was done in two braided ponytails, a black and purple body suit and blue eyes flashed through her mind. 'Why am I thinking of her right now?'

Suddenly a memory flashed through her mind.

*Flash*

White Heart glared at Purple Heart, who was grinning at her. "You damn... Dirty... Cheater!" She was on the forest floor, covered in paint and feathers while tied up with her arms pinned to her side.

"Nothing cheating about what I did, White Heart." Purple Heart smirked at her. "I win today."

"...Seriously, you suck." White Heart glared as Purple Heart pulled out some popcorn and snacked on it. "And where did you get that?!"

Purple Heart gave her a confused look. "How do you think I set my paint and feather trap timer? As soon as the popcorn was done, the paint would fly and then you'd fall into my feather trap."

"That's the stupidest thing..."

Purple Heart shrugged and ate another piece of popcorn. "Word of advice, if it's stupid, but it works, then it isn't stupid." She gave White Heart a smirk and pulled out a camera and took some pictures. "This will surely cause you some problems back in Lowee, don't you think?"

"DAMN YOU!" White Heart screamed as Purple Heart took the pictures before flying off.

*End Flashback*

Blanc let out a sigh and shook her head. "Such a stupid memory, such a worthless war..." Idly, she wondered when the Console Wars went from embarrassing each other in petty and silly ways to being violent conflicts.

'The past is the past, isn't it?' Blanc closed her eyes as the image of her younger sisters flashed through her mind and she sighed. "I don't deserve them, a monster like me?"

Part of her wondered how long it would take the twins to be ready in case something happened to her. Whether it took a few years, a few decades or even a century, she wanted them to be able to take over Lowee from her when they were ready and capable.

'After all, I know what happens if a CPU Candidate is rushed into the role too quickly.'

Stopping as she came across another fork in the pathway, Blanc looked right and then left before shrugging and heading down the left pathway.

Had she waited a few more minutes or went down the right pathway, she would have seen two glowing, angry eyes, followed by a loud hissing sound.

(-)

Meanwhile...

C-Sha looked around in confusion. "It's getting warm in here." While she expected as much from not being out in the cold air, the amount of heat that were in these tunnels was starting to get a little out of the ordinary.

Turning a corner, she felt her foot slip and C-Sha let out a yelp as she fell on her butt, her breasts bouncing with the motion, as she slid down some really smooth rocks and into a pit. "Oww, that... Hurt?" C-Sha paled as she looked around.

There were eggs.

Hundreds of eggs.

And they were starting to crack.

"Ah, crap." C-Sha said as she got to her feet and watched as the eggs hatched, revealing lots and lots of snakes escaping from the shells. "Well now I know what's going on. Looks like whatever's digging these tunnels just had a brood." Holding out her right arm, a buster cannon appeared on it as the baby snakes turned her way and started hissing as they aggressively slithered their way towards her. "Alright, you evil, creepy crawlies! I'll turn you all into wallets!"

Charging up her C-Buster, C-Sha fired several shots into the snakes, before jumping to the side and running along the wall, shooting and kicking the nasty buggers that got close to her and tried to bite her. "Never thought fighting all those zombies in that mall and manor would pay off here." She muttered to herself as she jumped up, put her feet on the wall and used that as a springboard to launch herself across the room and towards another opening that seemed to slope downwards. As she spun through the air, she looked up and grinned, firing several shots to the ceiling, causing the stalactites to loosen up and start falling down just as she landed on the other side.

After making sure that there were no more vipers getting out of the rocks, C-Sha stopped and shivered violently. "Bleah! I'd rather be stung by that zombie-spreading bee than deal with snakes." Sighing, she put her hand on the wall and instantly regretted it. "Oww!" C-Sha grimaced as she saw the super sharp and jagged glass-like black rocks sticking out of the wall. "The hell is this? Obsidian? Doesn't that only form in volcanoes?" Squeezing her left hand, she tried to ignore the bleeding and made her way down the tunnel.

Oddly, while the heat didn't seem to be getting too much more, there was a lot of humidity in the air.

"What is.." C-Sha trailed off as she walked into a large cavern. "...That's a big hot spring." Now she could tell why it was hot and humid. Looking at her left hand, she grimaced. "Well, I guess I can use this to wash the cut off." She walked over and knelt down to the water and dipped her left hand in, hissing in slight pain. When she pulled her hand back up, her eyes widened in shock. The cut had completely disappeared. "Okay, that's cool, so this thing has healing properties, good to know."

C-Sha snapped her head up as she heard a loud thump from down the other tunnel. "Crap, what's going on?" She ran quickly towards the tunnel and hoped that it wasn't anything too serious.

(-)

A few moments ago...

Blanc heard a hissing sound behind her and she turned around and saw a GIANT red snake rearing its head up as it tried to intimidate her. "Feh! I survived facing three other Goddesses in Celestia for centuries, you think a worm like you scares me?!" A flash of light and White Heart hovered in her place, her ax in her hand. "I smash you down!" The CPU roared and slammed her ax into the side of the giant snake, only to wince as the ax didn't penetrate the scales of the thing.

"REEYAAAAH!" The snake opened its mouth let out a horrible screech that made White Heart's ears ring. The next thing White Heart knew, a green mist came out of the creature's mouth, covering her body and causing her to cough hard.

"What is..." White Heart's eyes widened as she felt her transformation forcibly undone. "Virus?" She could feel the symptoms of poison working its way through her and her body felt really sluggish and difficult to move. 'Crap! Virus, poison AND paralysis in one gas attack?!' Blanc let out a gasp as the snake snapped its head forward and sent her crashing to the ground with an incredibly loud thump that caused Blanc to bounce off the ground before the snake snapped its head forward while Blanc was bouncing up and she was sent flying down the hallway, bouncing off the walls and ceiling, taking damage along the way.

Blanc couldn't even cough from the paralysis that had taken over her, with the poison burning through her body she didn't know how much longer she could last like this.

Grunting as she hit the wall, Blanc slid down on her butt and all she could do was watch as the snake slithered towards her, its mouth open wide. 'Huh, so this is how I die, not in a glorious battle against the other CPUs, not to Nepgear swearing revenge, but to an over-grown worm deciding I'll make a good meal, huh?' Mentally sighing, she closed her eyes and waited for the end. 'Rom, Ram, I'm sorry. Nepgear, you'll get your wish, I'll be dead. Purple Heart... If I see you after I die, will you forgive me?'

The snake let out another scream and lunged its head in to swallow Blanc in one gulp.

"C-BUSTER!" A blast from the side hit the snake in the open mouth, causing it to scream and throw its head back in pain. "Blanny!" C-Sha yelled as she saw the CPU down and unmoving. Glaring at the snake, C-Sha jumped into the air as the creature shook its head and glared at her. "How dare you? She's Lowee's CPU, she's not for you to take from us!" C-Sha yelled while firing another shot, this time into the left eye of the snake, which made it throw its head back and scream in pain.

Taking advantage of that, C-Sha charged up her buster and grinned as it started to glow brightly. "Suck on this, you slithering bastard." She pointed it at the snake and let out a yell as it fired a HUGE blast, one that was as large as her body, that went into the mouth of the snake and down its throat, causing it to thrash and scream before it fell over, clearly dead.

Landing on the ground, C-Sha let out a slow breath before running over to Blanc and she made her arm buster disappear. "Blanny!"

Blanc didn't look good, her skin was pale and her lips were blue. Picking Blanc up and putting her over her shoulders, C-Sha started to run to the hot springs. Her only hope was that it could heal more than just a cut.

"Le...ve... me..." Blanc slurred out.

"Nah, not gunna do that, Blanny." C-Sha smiled as she entered the hot springs cavern. "One sec." Sliding Blanc off of her, she pulled the CPU's coat and hat off before throwing her into the water and stripping out of her own clothes.

"PWAH!" Blanc gasped as she surfaced, her casual clothes soaked through and through. "What the hell?!" She yelled before yelping as C-Sha jumped in the water with her.

"Hee hee, sorry, Blanny..." C-Sha smiled as she broke the surface in her purple bra and matching panties. "I breathed a bit of the stuff that thing was spewing out." She let out a sigh of relief. "PHEW! Lucky this spring has healing properties, huh?" She blinked as Blanc glowered at her. "Um..."

"Nothing." Blanc said as she continued to glower at C-Sha.

"You kind of make me self-conscious when you glare at me." C-Sha turned away from Blanc. "You don't need to glare like that."

"Tch, so annoying." Blanc muttered as she looked at C-Sha's breasts.

"What's annoying?" C-Sha turned back to Blanc and saw the CPU's glare intensify as she saw the brunette's large breasts sway in the water. "...Oh." C-Sha sighed and had a crestfallen look on her face. "You're really no different, huh?"

Blanc stared as C-Sha waded through the water and got out, dripping wet. "What?" She had to admit, C-Sha's purple panties clung to her butt in ways that were distracting.

C-Sha turned back to look at her and sighed. "Well, we're going to be here for a few hours while our clothes dry, if you want to hear my story, I guess this worthless mortal can tell her Goddess what's wrong."

Blanc almost felt like she was in trouble.

(-)

"Do we need to sit on the sleeping bags naked?" Blanc asked as water dripped down her slender form as she sat in a way that kept her hands in front of her crotch.

"Either the sleeping bags or you sit on the ground and get your butt all dirty." C-Sha smirked at Blanc as she sat on an opposite sleeping bag, also naked while water ran down her arms, legs and chest, dripping off her body, most of the water on her breasts seemed to flow to two sharp tips at the end of her breasts while she sat cross legged before stretching with her arms over her head, exposing everything to Blanc, who blushed as she saw the very voluptuous and mature body moving in ways that were just distracting.

"Stop that, you Thunder Tits!" Blanc growled at C-Sha. "You're just doing that because you can!" C-Sha gave her a confused look and Blanc growled at her. "Showing off your tits and bouncing them around because you got them and I don't! Go on! Get it out of your system already!"

C-Sha immediately understood and sighed. "I actually don't like my breasts." Blanc scoffed and she nodded. "I know, why would a woman who has breasts like mine hate them? Well, I do." She closed her eyes and took a slow breath. Opening her eyes, C-Sha put her hands on the top of her breasts. "I guess it's because I started to develop when I was seven years old."

Blanc nodded, her face slightly red as she looked at those breasts. 'Damn Thunder Tits.' Memories of everything Vert had ever said to her about her lack of breasts flooded her mind at that moment, but she tried to push it out and listen to C-Sha's story.

C-Sha continued, "I was wearing a bra in school, only one my grade who had boobs. All the girls teased me and the boys thought I was a freak."

Blanc gave her a confused, but neutral look and nodded again.

"Well, that continued for five years. By the time I was twelve, the other girls finally started to catch up. Of course, they were just starting to blossom while I had breasts that some teachers were jealous of." C-Sha pursed her lips as she thought back to that time. "The girls my age called me everything under the sun from a floozy to a, um, well..."

Blanc rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to get mad because you swear. They probably called you a slut, huh?"

C-Sha nodded, thankful Blanc didn't mind coarse language. "Yes. The boys at that time were either still teasing me for having big breasts or being lewd perverts who tried to fondle me during lunch time. Some of the girls said that my boobs weren't natural and I even got attacked by girls saying they'd tear my implants out." She shook her head at Blanc's questioning look. "My tits? Completely natural."

"Lucky you." Blanc grumbled.

"Really, I find smaller ones to be better." C-Sha shook her head. "Anyway, after awhile, I stopped caring about anything. I dropped out of school while I was still twelve and ran away from home." Blanc gave her a look of surprise and she shook her head. "I've since gone home to visit my parents, if that's what you're wondering. Anyway, I was pretty nihilistic during that point in my life. I had become so numb to everything that I thought nothing mattered in the end. By the time I turned thirteen I was just wandering from place to place when I saw something that gave me a reason to care again."

"Oh?"

"An old man wearing a purple outfit. He was bald but had a really long beard and was a master martial artist. He saw potential in me and showed me what he could do." C-Sha smiled at Blanc. "I thought it was cool. For the first time in three years I thought something was worth doing again. We went our separate ways four years later."

"...How old are you?"

"Ninteen." C-Sha answered her. "I wasn't aiming to be a master of martial arts, so he taught me enough. Afterwords, I went and became a hunter, joined the guild and eventually ended up in Lowee. Your turn, why don't you like big breasts?"

Blanc sneered. "That damn bimbo from Leanbox. She's always going on about her breasts and how perfect they are and how her breasts make her more of a goddess than me! It's not like I can control how big I am!" She started to snarl as she stood up, her hands held up in front of her, not even caring as she exposed herself fully to C-Sha. "For centuries she goes on and on about her boobs are so perfect and how I'm lacking as a Goddess because I don't have tits! So what?! It's not like us Goddesses change much when we transform!"

C-Sha blinked as Blanc stopped and started to tear up. "Blanny?"

"E...Except one... That stupid... Stupid... DAMN YOU, PURPLE HEART!" She fell to her knees and slumped forward, tears falling out of her eyes. "HOW DARE YOU DIE AND LEAVE ME ALONE?! HOW DARE YOU LET ME KILL YOU?!"

"Blanny..." C-Sha said softly as Blanc started to punch the ground through her sleeping back.

"USELESS! I'M SO FUCKING USELESS!" Blanc screamed in frustration. "I'M NOTHING MORE THAN A MONSTER!"

"Blanny!" C-Sha was next to Blanc and pulled the naked and wet CPU against her naked and wet body, hugging the naked girl. "Blanny, you're not a monster."

"YES I AM!" Blanc cried as she buried her face into C-Sha's breasts. Oddly, she didn't feel disgusted by them like she would if this was Vert. "I DON'T DESERVE MY SISTERS! I DON'T DESERVE TO BE A CPU! I SHOULD JUST DIE!"

C-Sha frowned and gave Blanc's butt a harsh pinch, causing the CPU to stiffen in shock. "Enough!" She gave Blanc a stern look as the CPU grabbed her sore butt. "Why do you say that? Don't you think your people would say different? What about your sisters?"

"As soon as my sisters are ready, they'll take over Lowee, then I can just disappear and fade away forever."

"But why would you do that?" C-Sha gave her a concerned look. "People care about you."

"No they don't." Blanc's anger was gone and replaced by a sad, distant look. "No one does. They care about me as the CPU, not as me..."

C-Sha couldn't stand it, she couldn't stand hearing Blanc put herself down. Before she knew what she was doing, she grabbed Blanc and pulled her into a tight hug, her large breasts squishing against Blanc's chest as she held the trembling CPU, who stiffened in shock.

"Wh...What?" Blanc spluttered as C-Sha hugged her. "Lemme go!" She struggled and squirmed, but C-Sha wouldn't let go. "Lemme go! Lemme go! Why are you..?"

C-Sha held her tight. "I admit, I've always found you to be pretty attractive, Blanny, whether you're in your human form or your CPU form." C-Sha answered her and smiled gently as she felt Blanc stop struggling and slowly start to relax in her hug. "And like I said, when it comes to breasts, I prefer small ones anyway. But beyond that, Blanny, even if you think no one else does, I do."

"You don't even know me! The monster I am!" Blanc got out of the hug and turned away from C-Sha, her arms crossed over her chest and she huffed. Her eyes widened and she stiffened as she felt C-Sha come up to her from behind, her large breasts press up against Blanc's head.

"Then let me get to know you." C-Sha said as she sat down and basically put Blanc against her lap.

"I'm a Goddess, you're a human, I'll outlive you." Blanc trembled as C-Sha wrapped her arms around the small CPU's body. Blanc couldn't bring herself to fight this time.

"Even when I get old, wrinkly and ugly, I'll be there for you, Blanny." C-Sha said softly. "You're not a monster, don't close your heart off to the world. There's so much you can give."

Blanc trembled, tears falling out of her eyes. "I don't deserve this. I don't deserve nice things! All I do is ruin everything!"

C-Sha started to rock back and forth softly. "I wouldn't mind if you ruined me." She smiled as Blanc shook her head. "Please, Blanny? Even if you feel like you don't deserve anything nice, I'm telling you, you do. So don't close your heart off."

"...We're not lovers." Blanc said as she turned her head to look at C-Sha. "We're partners, okay?"

C-Sha smiled at her. "Even if we do lewd things to each other?"

Blanc blushed hard and stayed in the hug, enjoying the contact, as well as C-Sha's large breasts agaisnt her head, before she fully turned to face C-Sha. "...Why? Why me?"

C-Sha shrugged at her. "I don't know, when I first saw you I thought you were perfect. I held up hope that one day I could meet you in person."

"...Love at first sight?" Blanc gave her a deadpan stare while C-Sha just laughed.

"Maybe, I don't know. Blanc, I don't know if I do love you, but I really do like you. Do you want to..."

Blanc sighed heavily. "I'm a CPU, I've got a lot of duties. You're a hunter for the guild, I'm sure you have lots of duties as well."

"True..." C-Sha's face was a light pink. "But right now... We don't have those duties, do we? And, even if it's only for a few minutes, or a few hours, or just a day, we can make time for each other, that is, when our duties don't get in the way."

"Yeah..." Blanc looked at the clothes that were hanging on some wires that C-Sha had set up. "It's going to be awhile, huh?"

"Yep." C-Sha grinned at Blanc, who just wondered why she was grinning.

(-)

One hour later...

As she cuddled against C-Sha in her sleep in the sleeping bag, her head buried into C-Sha's breasts, Blanc let out a soft sigh.

It was the first night since the end of the Console Wars that Blanc got a full night's sleep without her usual nightmares bothering her.

* * *

Yeah, that was how it went down. My first draft was a LOT more lewd than this. I was then informed by Blanc that if I put it like I had originally had it, that I would have suffered severe injuries.

Nepstation time!

* * *

"Hello and welcome to Nepstation with your hosts Ram..."

"...And Rom. Um, why are we here?"

"Because our sister had an awesome lovey-dovey moment with C-Sha!"

"Uh huh, C-Sha's awesome, Blanc's awesome."

"...Hey, Rom..."

"What?"

"We should get them to marry each other!"

"...I like this."

"Yeah! Okay, bye bye everyone!"

"But this isn't canon, is it?"

"...BOO! This is Ram..."

"And Rom..."

"Signing off."


	15. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

* * *

"That took awhile." IF grinned wryly at Jupiter as she came back to see them. "Have fun in the bathroom?"

"Iffy, stop teasing." Compa admonished IF gently. "So Juppy..."

"...Juppy?" Jupiter looked at Compa weirdly. "Am I a puppy now?" She asked in confusion, getting a laugh from the others. "What?"

"It's just something Compa does." IF smiled at her. "Haven't you ever had a nickname before?" Jupiter shook her head slowly. "Well, you do now."

"Neat!" Jupiter smiled.

"So Juppy!" Compa smiled happily. "Why are you here in Leanbox?"

"Uni asked me if I wanted to go with her to Leanbox and Lowee's too cold." Jupiter shivered remembering how she nearly froze parts of her body off up there.

"It's not that bad!" Ram huffed as Uni, Compa and IF giggled. "It's not! Jupiter's just a big wimp!"

"Uh huh. Lowee feels nice."

"You're just used to it." IF told them. "Someone who's never been there wouldn't be able to handle it as well." Jupiter looked at her sharply and IF grimaced suddenly. "Oww, leg..." She hissed and rocked her body to try and move her leg into a less painful position. "NNNNGH!" Jupiter ran over to the desk to help Compa and Uni pull IF's chair away from the desk.

"I've got ice for you." Compa pulled out an ice bag and had Uni help her lift IF's leg up before she wrapped the ice bag around the injured part of IF's leg. Compa nearly teared up as she watched IF struggle to keep from screaming out while her leg was hurting her.

After half a minute IF started to pant and slump in her chair. "That... Owww..." Tears were in the corner of her eyes. "I'll never get used to those sudden flare ups."

"Can I help?" Rom asked as she walked up to the girl. "Maybe my healing magic can take the pain away?" IF nodded and sighed even more as Rom started to cast healing magic on her leg. The pain quickly subsided and IF felt like she could actually get a full night's sleep at that point. "You feeling better?"

"Much." IF nodded. She knew that it wouldn't fix the damage to her leg, even the best healing spells from Lowee couldn't fix that, but making the pain go away? That was a plus in IF's book.

"Oh dear," a new voice spoke up and Jupiter stiffened as she heard it from right behind her. Turning around, she let out a yelp of surprise as her face connected with large, bouncy breasts that sent her crashing to the floor. "IF, are you okay?" The voice that belonged to those breasts asked.

"I'm fine now, Lady Vert." IF gave her a tired and pained smile.

Jupiter shook her head and focused on the body that those large breasts were connected to. The person was a fairly tall woman with long, blonde hair, and she wore a green and white dress that Jupiter thought was fairly practical as it didn't flow too much and looked like a cross between a princess dress and a business dress. As she stood up she noticed that the woman's eyes were blue. "Ah, sorry about th..at..." She trailed off as she realized what IF had said. 'Vert? As in Green Heart?!'

Jupiter could only imagine how angry the CPU was over her accidental run-in with those breasts, magnificent as they were, as that had been one thing Nepgear had mentioned was that Green Heart valued her breasts over basically everything else. 'Though I can see why sis says she takes such pride in them, sheesh they're big!'

Jupiter wondered why she was getting distracted by Green Heart's breasts so much, there were more important things to worry about!

Like if Green Heart was offended by what she did and decided to pull out a spear and make an example of her or something.

"Oh dear, are you okay?" Vert gave Jupiter a kind smile. "I was worried about IF and didn't see you there."

"Miss Vert!" Rom smiled happily. "How are you?"

"I'm fine." Vert smiled and walked over to the small girl before hugging her into her chest happily. "You're even cuter than the last time I saw you!" She gushed over the small CPU Candidate, who flailed her arms up and down at the sudden hug.

"Aww! No fair! I want a boobie hug too!" Ram whined before Vert let go of Rom and grabbed Ram and pulled her into the same smothering hug that she had Rom in a moment ago.

Uni giggled nervously, she knew she would get pulled into such a hug, she just knew it. Sure, Vert's breasts were fairly comfortable, but it was always so awkward.

The hug lasted for several moments before Vert let go of Ram. "It's so nice to see you two again. Uni, I heard that you had a nasty run in with a powerful Dragon. Are you okay?" Uni nodded, though she looked away shamefully. "Please calm down dear, even I would have trouble with such a Dragon." Vert gave her a gentle look. "Please don't worry about it. Noire and I would be so sad if you got seriously hurt."

Uni sighed and nodded. "It just sucks that I didn't even get a chance to fight back. The thing shows up and then WHAM! I'm out cold and out of the fight!"

"Uni..." Vert sighed softly. "It's okay..."

"It's not!" Uni yelled in frustration. "I feel so useless sometimes! Like that time we accidentally ended up in Planeptune and needed to be saved by their CPU because we were chasing some monsters that we were supposed to be hunting and the ones we ran into were really powerful!"

Jupiter perked up at hearing that. 'Sis saved them? Why didn't she mention anything to me?' It would have been nice to know that there were other CPU Candidates before she had left. 'Then again, sis never intended for me to ever leave Planeptune in the first place.' A thought then occurred to her. 'Wait, how did they accidentally end up in Planeptune? Sis has all the borders locked down tight, the only exception is... Oh.' Her eyes widened as she realized just how they got into the country. 'No wonder they needed sis's help, she flat-out told me never to go near that section of the country unless I wanted to die because everything was as strong as an end-game boss.' Well, at least on foot, if one flew up high enough, they could avoid the battles completely.

"Uni..." Compa gave the girl a sympathetic look.

"Miss Uni..." Rom tugged on the distraught girl's dress. "It's okay, you're really cool."

"Thanks, Rom." Uni gave her a small smile and sighed. "Sorry about that, it's just so... Frustrating!"

"No need to be upset about that. We're all friends here." Vert smiled at her. "And I understand your frustration."

Uni looked down and sighed. "I don't know if you do." She said softly. It wasn't like Vert was trying to be cruel or anything, Uni knew that, but she also knew that no one really understood her problems. She was the oldest of the CPU Candidates and she needed to be the leader and role model for Rom and Ram, not to mention that she was one of Lastation's faces in the world and she couldn't let people see her get defeated so easily. 'After all, who could follow a worthless Goddess like me if I keep getting beaten?'

She had tried to talk to Rom and Ram about her concerns in the past, but neither of them were able to hold a conversation for very long without veering off on some tangent and never returning to her concerns. It was easy to listen to their problems and give advice, but she had no one that could relate to her problems as a CPU Candidate.

Jupiter watched, wide-eyed as she heard that. 'Did she just brush off Green Heart like that?! Is she crazy?!' Nepgear had mentioned that brushing the other CPUs off only made them angry.

"You're probably right." Vert gave her a soft smile. "I truly do wish that I had gotten a younger sister that you could be friends with."

"...Why didn't you?" Jupiter asked, her curiosity getting the better of her before she could keep quiet.

Vert sighed and shook her head. "I have no clue. Perhaps my followers don't think I need one or perhaps the shares in Leanbox just aren't good enough. But anyway, Uni, if you need to ever vent or talk, I'll listen." Giving Uni a kind smile, she turned to look at Jupiter more fully and her eyes widened in shock. 'My goodness! She's so adorable!'

The next thing that Jupiter knew, Vert was in front of her, hugging her tightly and squealing in delight. "BLARGH!"

"Oh you are so precious!" Vert squealed. "I knew you were cute when I saw that picture that Blanc took but you're so adorable and cute and I just want to keep you!"

"Um, Lady Vert..." Compa giggled, a nervous look on her face as she watched Jupiter flail her arms up and down helplessly. "If you keep Juppy's face pressed against you like that, the only place she's going to be able to stay is on a bed because I don't think she can breathe."

"Oh my!" Vert let go of Jupiter, who fell to the floor in a heap and took deep breaths. "I apologize, but you were so cute that I could not help myself."

Jupiter panted, her eyes wide before she scooted back as quickly as possible. 'Sis, you were wrong! Green Heart's most terrifying power is her boobs, not her spear!' No wonder Nepgear never wanted to be around her if she could suffocate someone so easily!

Seeing Jupiter's terrified face, Vert mentally sighed. 'Blanc, Noire, you two were right, she really is terrified of us, isn't she?' This was going to be difficult and she had CPU duties to attend to. "I truly am sorry. I know, how about I put on a pot of tea and we can all play some games together? Iffy, Compa, you two can join us as well."

"Um..." Jupiter gulped nervously. 'First of all, sis is going to kill me if she finds out that I'm here, secondly, I don't know if she'll poison the tea. Then again, she doesn't know who I am and sis did say it would look really bad if a Goddess went around killing guests, but I can't help but think something bad will happen if we play games but...' She looked at Uni, Rom and Ram and smiled lightly as she remembered the party games they played in Lowee. "S...S...sure..."

"Dear, there's no need to be so nervous." Vert gave her a smile. "I won't poison the tea or anything like that. That would be insulting to everything a tea enthusiast like myself stands for."

"Why would you need to say that?" Uni asked while Compa left to get a wheelchair. "Why would a CPU do something like that?"

Vert looked back at Uni before looking at Jupiter. "Dear, it's okay. Blanc and Noire figured it out." She watched as the girl got a very terrified look on her face and looked like she was about to try and flee the room. "That you were fed anti-CPU propaganda when you were growing up." Part of her wondered why Jupiter suddenly relaxed after hearing that.

"Those jerks again?!" Ram growled in anger. "They said such mean things about Blanc!"

"Uh huh! Meanies!" Rom frowned. "Saying that she's a big bully!"

Vert let out a contemplative noise before clapping her hands together. "I know! How about we have some tea at the table and let Jupiter tell us what she was told about us CPUs?"

Jupiter gulped, "do I need to?" She asked helplessly as Uni walked up to her and gave her an annoyed look. "Um..."

"Listen, I don't care what you've been told about me, but I want to know what you've heard about my sister, got it?" She gave Jupiter a stern look, causing the purple-haired girl to nod rapidly. "Good." Grabbing Jupiter's arm, she dragged the girl to the room Vert had talked about.

Smiling softly, Vert could see that Jupiter was fairly relaxed around Uni, even if the latter was being forceful. 'Is it because CPU Candidates aren't in charge or is there something else?'

(-)

Several minutes later...

After getting a large pot of tea ready and pouring out several glasses, Vert sat down near IF and across from Jupiter. "Now, dear, why don't you tell me what you've been told about us CPUs? I promise, no matter what you say that I will not be upset at you."

"It... It's just... L...Lady Gr...Green Heart..." Jupiter tried to calm down, she knew Green Heart wasn't trying to be mean, but she couldn't ignore what she had been told about the other CPUs.

"Take a deep breath and try to relax." Vert smiled softly. "I do understand your nervousness. After all, I've heard that I'm lazy, ruthless and completely uncaring about anyone but myself before."

"That's... Not what I was told..." Jupiter stuttered over her words. "I heard th..that you were obsessed with your boobs and that you hated anyone who did anything to them and that you would laugh while skewering people on your spear and... EEEP!" Jupiter let out a yell and ducked under the table at Vert's look. It was somewhere between an angry and a shocked look.

"Dear me, I'm sorry Jupiter, please, if I seemed to get upset, I wasn't upset at you." Vert was thankful that Uni went over and helped coax Jupiter out from under the table. "I'm just surprised..."

"Uh huh, you're not like that." Rom said, a confused look on her face.

Vert sighed and shook her head. "Unlike what I've heard before, this touched a bit closer to home than I liked. Could you please tell me what you've heard about Blanc and Noire?"

"White Heart and Black Heart?" Jupiter looked at Rom, Ram and Uni and looked away. "I'm sorry, but if I say..."

"Hey, I want to know." Uni said and gave her a gentle smile. "I'm sure it can't be as bad as what I've heard." Jupiter gave her a confused look and Uni grimaced slightly. "I've heard that Noire is a difficult taskmaster that doesn't care about anything but work and when she's not working she's plotting world domination or something."

Jupiter sweat-dropped. "Um... That's...Not what I heard. I heard that Black Heart was an egotistical cow who cares only about being elegant and showing off to the best of her abilities, only cares about being the best and not caring about anyone around her and will taunt you by saying that you're pathetic while laughing and she only gets mad when someone makes her seem less than elegant."

"That!" Uni's eyes went white and blank. "No way! Sis has never been like that as long as I've known her."

Vert narrowed her eyes as she listened. 'She's describing us perfectly. Sure, it's not flattering, but that's how we were during the war.' As far as she knew the Anti-CPU faction in Gamindustri didn't know the Goddesses that perfectly.

"Well, what about Blanc?" Ram asked. "Is she some sort of meanie?"

"Um..." Jupiter gulped at the angry look. "I heard she has a temper and a foul mouth that would make a soldier blush, she hates the fact that she's flat-chested and charges into battle blindly and swings her ax around like a maniac and ignores hits like a crazed berserker or something and then hits people so hard that they go flying."

"That sounds about right." Ram said softly, those were all true.

"Oh, and I heard that she was a really bad writer."

Vert burst out laughing as she heard that. "Oh my! I'm glad that you didn't say that in front of Blanc, she would not have been happy."

Jupiter sweat-dropped heavily. 'If I said that, I'd be in HDD form and preparing to lead her to sis so we could gang up on her.'

"But... But Noire's not like that!" Uni protested. "She's a little awkward sometimes and she sometimes ignores me and I wish she praised me more, but she's not like that at all. She never once got mad at me for not being perfect or anything."

"Uni, please calm down." Vert said softly to her. "Jupiter wasn't wrong about any of that."

"But..."

"We used to be like that." Vert said sadly, causing everyone to look at her in confusion. "You three weren't born yet and Iffy, Compa and Jupiter were probably too young to remember the wars, but I can say that, without a doubt, Noire, Blanc and myself were very much like that."

"What happened?" Rom asked, a nervous look on her face.

"After the final battle of the Console Wars, the three of us lost our desire to keep the fight going." Vert wasn't going to go into details as to why, she knew that the Candidates knew and it only brought up bad memories. "After Planeptune's CPU withdrew into her nation and isolated her country, things were mostly calm, but then you three Candidates were born."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Compa asked.

"Everything." Vert said softly. "I suppose I should clarify then. After the war, when Purple Heart fell in the final battle we had against each other and we discovered who Lilac Heart was..."

"Noire told us," Uni spoke up, "she said that Lilac Heart was the CPU Candidate for Planeptune at the end of the war and that you, Noire and Blanc killed Purple Heart, right?"

Vert nodded. "Yes." She looked at Jupiter, who was looking at Vert in confusion. "After you three were born," a soft, sad smile graced her lips. "Let's just say that it caused all of us to change from what we were in the past."

"Lady Vert?" IF was concerned, it wasn't very often that Vert was like this, and she was concerned that her CPU was upset.

"I apologize." Vert shook her head. "Jupiter, if you were told all those things about us, I can understand why you're afraid. Please, rest assured that all three of us CPUs have changed tremendously since the wars ended."

"Oh." Jupiter nodded slowly. 'Maybe they have, but sis...' She didn't know what to tell her sister. An image flashed through her head of Nepgear looking sad as she sat in her office, all alone, while lightning flashed outside. 'Sis... I need to call her.'

"Are you okay?" Vert asked, getting a nod from Jupiter.

"Um, if it's okay, I'd like to step outside, I need to think." Jupiter asked, getting a nod from Vert.

"Certainly. Uni, would you be a dear and lead her outside?"

"Of course." Uni smiled at Vert. "Come on." She said, her voice gruff and angry as she led Jupiter out of the room.

"Um, are you mad at me?" Jupiter asked, gulping as Uni turned back to give her an angry look.

"No, I'm not mad at you, certainly not because you told me things about my sister that I never knew before and never thought her capable of." Uni said, her voice completely neutral. "And it's not like I want to hurt the person who told you that."

"HEY!" Jupiter yelled, startling Uni. "Don't say that, you don't know what kind of person my sister is!"

Watching them leave, Vert smiled softly. 'If Jupiter was a CPU Candidate, she'd be a perfect friend for Uni.'

(-)

"Hey, Jupiter..." Uni sighed in exasperation as Jupiter continued to ignore her. "Look! I'm sorry, okay? Just... Hearing that about my sister... I never knew she was like that, and I wanted to defend her."

"I know, and I feel the same way about my sister." Jupiter looked at Uni. "That's why I got upset. Anyway, I need to call her."

"Sure." Uni nodded and stepped away to give the girl some privacy. 'I wonder who her sister is, I wouldn't mind meeting her, and then yelling at her for saying those things about Noire.'

Off to the side, Jupiter waited for the phone to be answered. _"Hello?"_

"Hey, sis!" Jupiter smiled into her phone.

_"Jupiter?"_ Even though Nepgear's voice sounded mostly the same, Jupiter could hear the slight elation in her sister's voice. _"Are you okay?"_

"I'm fine, I'm more worried about you though."

_"You know that I'm fine."_

Jupiter had a flat look on her face. "Really? You're not spending all night in the office doing work and trying to distract from the fact that I'm not there are you?"

_"...I wasn't sleeping at my desk."_

Jupiter sighed, she knew her sister wouldn't cry very much, but hearing that made her feel horrible. "Sheesh! Sis, promise me that you'll go to bed and sleep in your bed tonight, okay? If you need to, sleep in my bed."

_"Jupiter, I'm not..."_

"Please? I worry about you, sis."

_"...Alright, I promise. Um, Jupiter. Let me know when you're going to be coming home, please? I'll make that stew you love so much."_

Jupiter's eyes lit up. "Awesomesauce! I'll make sure to call you when I head home then!"

_"Thanks. Well, get back to having fun and tell me all about your trip when you get back."_

"Of course! Bye sis, love you."

There was silence over the line and Jupiter knew that her sister was probably trying to formulate a proper response to that.

_"I love you too, Jupiter. Goodbye."_

Jupiter smiled as she hung up the phone. Talking to her sister always put her in a better mood. "Okay, let's go." She spoke to Uni, who gave her an amused look. "What?"

"Your sister sleeps in her office?"

"Sometimes." Jupiter sighed. "You wouldn't believe the amount of times I've had to carry her over to the couch to sleep when she crashed at the desk. And she's taller than me, it's always awkward to carry her!"

Uni giggled at that. "Noire's not quite that bad, but I could easily see her doing that."

(-)

In Planeptune...

"Nepgear, are you..." Histoire trailed off as she saw Nepgear looking at her phone with a gentle look in her eyes. "Did Jupiter call?"

Nepgear nodded. "Yeah..." She sighed and hung her head. "I'm not a good big sister, am I?"

"Nepgear?"

"She should look up to me, rely on me and not worry about me. That's what big sisters are supposed to do, yet here she is, calling me, asking if I'm getting enough sleep, or if I'm even sleeping in my bed."

"It just shows how much she loves you." Histoire floated over and patted Nepgear on the shoulder. "You know, if you feel so badly about it, why not take a day off after she comes back and just do things together as a family? She'd really appreciate it if you played a game with her, you know?"

Nepgear was silent for a moment before looking up at Histoire, a confused look on her face. "...Who are you and what did you do with the Histoire that always harped on and on about how a good CPU puts everyone first and never worries about themselves?"

Histoire slumped and looked down. "Nepgear, I... I really screwed up. Please, I wish I could go back in time and stop myself. You need to relax."

Nepgear didn't say anything and looked at the paperwork on her desk, sighing softly. "I better get back to work."

As Histoire left, looking incredibly sad, Nepgear pondered what Histoire said. '...I really should spend more time with Jupiter. It might not hurt to play a game or two in the evenings with her at least.' She really did want to, though it had been so long since she had picked up a controller that she was sure that any skills she may have had would have atrophied horribly.

(-)

Two hours later...

"GAH!" Jupiter let out a scream as she walked around Leanbox's Basilicom. "I should've have asked Uni to help me look around this place!" It was more surprising to her that she hadn't gotten lost when she was in Lowee, but she chalked that up to having Uni, Rom, Ram or Financier around to help her find her way around. "Grr! I just HAD to need to use the bathroom after dinner too!" The food was pretty good as Compa had made it and the other CPU Candidates had raved about her cooking skills.

As she walked down the hallway, Jupiter came across an open door. "Was this the room? I don't recall it being here." Opening the door fully and walking inside, her eyes went blank and white while her face turned bright red. "N, n, n, n, naked boys!" She screamed as she saw the pictures on the walls. "WAGH! Those boys are kissing!" Quickly putting her hands over her eyes, she spun around and tried to run for the door, only to run into a book shelf next to the door at full speed. "OWWIES!"

Falling to her butt, Jupiter let out a whine before something flopped onto her face. "BWAH?!" Pulling it off, she fully expected a book full of naked boys.

What she saw was a bunch of images of Uni, Rom and Ram, both in normal and HDD forms. Turning the pages, she saw the three smiling happily as they did quests, played on the beach or did other stuff together. The fierce look on Uni's face when she was transformed was interesting, especially since it contrasted so well with her more calm and friendly human form.

Seeing Uni with Noire and both having an embarrassed, but happy look on their faces made her smile softly. 'Sis... I don't think the CPUs are as bad as you think they are.'

There was an image of Blanc building a sandcastle with Rom on the beach, though the next image had Jupiter laughing as a beach ball tore through the castle with Rom and Blanc both looking on in shock. The next image was Blanc standing up and yelling off to the side while Rom was on her knees and crying. Jupiter laughed even harder as the next image showed Blanc chasing Vert and Noire around with an over-sized hammer. "I can only imagine how silly that was."

She wondered what else was in the album.

(-)

Meanwhile...

"Oh dear..." Vert sighed as she walked down the hallway of her Basilicom. "Just where did that little cutie wander off to." She hoped that Jupiter didn't slip outside when she went off to go to the bathroom and ran away. Mentally Vert wondered if she could change the girl's outlook on the CPUs. She was pretty polite, even if she was scared of them. Turning a corner, she blinked at an open door. "Oh dear, is that my..." She really hoped that Rom, Ram or Uni didn't find the room. While Uni might be old enough mentally and might be interested in her BL collection, she knew that if Blanc found out if Rom or Ram got into that room that she'd have a very angry White Heart on her case.

Walking up to the door, she took a peek inside to see if someone was in there and she looked on in surprise to see Jupiter looking through a photo album of hers. She instantly recognized it due to the size and thickness of it. Smiling, Vert walked into the room quietly. "Are you enjoying looking at my collection of Candidate photos?"

Jupiter let out a shriek and jumped several feet into the air. Which was impressive considering she was sitting on her rear end on the ground.

"Oh dear, are you okay?" Vert was by her side in an instant when Jupiter crashed on the ground and groaned while rubbing her butt.

Jupiter let out a squeak when she saw how close Vert was. "Um, ye, yes, just hit my butt too hard, Lady G-Green Heart."

"Dear, you don't need to be so formal with me." Vert gave her a kind smile but stepped back a couple of steps so that Jupiter would hopefully relax.

"So-sorry..." Jupiter blushed hard. "I was just looking at this and..." She looked at the album again, where she saw an image of a blindfolded Noire beating a stuffed donkey while Rom, Ram and Uni cheered her on while Blanc held onto a rope that kept the donkey elevated while Vert smiled at everyone. "This looks recent."

"Hmm?" Vert looked at it. "Ah, that was from a few months ago. We were having a party to celebrate their births into the world." Vert smiled at the memory.

"You said you don't have a sister." Jupiter spoke up, her voice timid. "Is that why you have all these photos?"

Vert sighed softly. "Yes. I view Uni, Rom and Ram as surrogate little sisters. Sometimes they can't talk to Noire or Blanc about their problems and so I listen to their problems."

"...Why?" Jupiter asked, confusion in her voice and on her face. "I mean..."

"Dear, it's okay." Vert gave her a small smile. "Do you want to know a little secret?" Jupiter nodded softly. "Before I tell you, I have to ask, do you know Lilac Heart?"

'What does sis have to do with anything?' Jupiter nearly asked, but managed to keep her voice down. "Um, I've heard of her, she's kind of a loner, isn't she?" Jupiter fought the urge to transform, fly back to Planeptune and hug her sister and apologize for saying that.

"Sort of." Vert said, nodding to her. Walking over to a nearby chair, the large breasted blonde sat down and closed her eyes. "I suppose you wouldn't know much about CPUs or the Candidates. But if something happens to us CPUs, it's the job of the Candidate to take over the nation."

Jupiter nodded, she knew all of that. "So what does that have to do with anything?"

"Do you know that Lilac Heart was Planeptune's CPU Candidate during the end of the Console Wars?" Vert spoke to Jupiter, opening her eyes as the girl was silenced by the story she was being told. "I won't go into details, you heard them earlier. But after Uni, Rom and Ram were born, well..." Vert sighed and Jupiter could only stare at how...

Old and tired the blonde seemed to be, despite looking only like she was in her twenties.

"I know that you've been fed anti-CPU propaganda, so I don't know how much this means to you." Vert gave her a gentle look. "Not even those three girls know this. But ever since they were born, every time I look at Uni or Rom or Ram... I realize how horrible of a person I was back during the wars."

Jupiter stared at her in shock. "...Lady Green Heart?"

Vert leaned back in her chair and looked up. "I sometimes wonder... If we hadn't killed Purple Heart... Or if we had gone to Planeptune and asked for Lilac Heart to forgive us and helped her grow as a CPU..." Vert laughed softly. "Please, I'm sorry for burdening you with this." Standing up, she turned to leave. "Neptune..." She whispered as she walked towards the door. "I really wish I could have fulfilled your last request to be friends with your your little sister."

Jupiter sat there in stunned silence as she heard that. 'Neptune... Is sis's big sister?! That's who she calls for in her sleep?'

Out in the hallway, Vert frowned to herself. 'Why did I tell her that? It doesn't make sense.' She couldn't justify why she did it, but once she started talking she couldn't stop the words from spilling out. 'Why did I lay that on her? I don't understand.'

(-)

Meanwhile in Planeptune...

"Hey, Rat..."

"I have a name, Chu." The rat glared at the guard.

"Don't care. You got a visitor. I suggest you be polite."

"Chu?" The rat's eyes widened in shock as Lilac Heart walked into the room. "EEEK! The CPU?!" The rat backed up against the far wall of the cage he was in.

Lilac Heart walked over to the cage and gave it a kick, causing it to topple onto the back. "Hello, rat."

"CHU!" The rat whimpered in fear. "Wh...Why are you here?"

Lilac Heart looked at the rat with cold, unemotional eyes, causing the rat to sweat and tremble in fear. "I have a hard time not justifying ending your life at this moment."

"Wh...What did I do wrong?" The rat trembled as Lilac Heart knelt down to look him in the eyes.

"You were trying to either steal technology or pirate game software. Either way, doing such a thing is a threat to me, and thus a threat to my people and ultimately a threat to Gamindustri as a whole." Lilac Heart's voice was soft and neutral. "So who do you work for?"

"N...No one, Chu!" The rat let out a yell of fear as Lilac Heart grabbed the cage and lifted it up above her head. "What are you doing?!"

"I wonder... If I throw this at the wall as hard as I can, will you survive or turn into chunky salsa?" Lilac Heart replied.

"WAIT!" The rat screamed in fear. "I'll talk! I'll talk!" The rat trembled as Lilac Heart lowered her arm. "There's a group of people who live in the other nations that think that CPUs aren't good for Gamindustri."

"The Anti-CPU faction." Lilac Heart said, getting a nod from the rat.

"Right! I don't know much about it, I work with them as a freelancer." The rat gulped as she narrowed her eyes at him. "I don't know who's in charge! I get asked to sneak into places and do damage and pirate stuff because I'm a rat and it's easier for me to sneak around."

Lilac Heart kept her eyes narrowed at the rat. "I see. You don't happen to have any information about operations, would you?"

"N...No! We're just given orders at random! I don't even know who's telling us! We get written orders to cause problems for the CPUs and spread rumors about them!"

Lilac Heart sighed, stood up and threw the cage against the far wall, causing the rat to scream in terror as the cage bounced off the wall and landed on the floor. "Just lovely." She muttered and floated towards the door of the room.

"HEY! You could have killed me!" The rat yelled.

Lilac Heart stopped and turned to look at the rat. "If I wanted to kill you, rat, you would already be dead." With that final word, she left.

The rat shuddered. "She's so scary, chu!"

(-)

"Honey?" Anonydeath asked Nepgear in confusion. "Why are you here?"

"Has there been any increases in piracy, technology theft or other problems in the other nations as of late?"

"Hmm..." Anonydeath took on a contemplative pose. "Well, Green Heart mentioned that she recently had a spike of piracy and theft to deal with, which is why she wasn't able to help when little Noire's younger sister got hurt by a Tiamat close to the Lowee-Lastation border."

Nepgear gave him a sharp look. 'A Tiamat? Jupiter mentioned a Tiamat...' Dread started to fill her. "Anonydeath... I need you to be completely honest with me. Do you know where my sister is?"

"Huh?" Anonydeath asked in confusion. "Why do you ask?"

"Please, Anonydeath..." Nepgear trembled, "do you know where she is?"

"No," Anonydeath answered. "But I can find out for you. Why?"

"My sister called me not too long ago and asked about Tiamat for some reason." Nepgear answered, her face showing some panic as she started to put things together. "...She's in Lowee, isn't she? Blanc has my sister!" She turned to run out of the room.

"Woah!" Anonydeath got up and suddenly hugged Nepgear to him. "Please, honey, calm down."

"Let me go! She's got my sister! Blanc's doing something to her! I know it!" Nepgear was starting to panic and hyperventilate while she thrashed, pushed and squirmed while trying to get out of his grip.

"Nepgear!" Anonydeath yelled, causing Nepgear to stiffen in shock, he rarely, if ever, called her by her name. Seeing that she wasn't moving, he continued. "Your sister is not in Lowee. I can promise you that." Anonydeath was thankful that Nepgear didn't start struggling again, even if she was still trembling. "Please, believe me, she's not in Lowee right now, and either way, I haven't heard anything about anyone being captured in any of the nations that wasn't already a wanted criminal."

"...Do you mean it?" Nepgear asked.

"Honey, if something bad happened to your sister and I knew about it, I would tell you even if you were in the bath."

"...You just want to see me naked." Nepgear said softly.

"Guilty as charged!" Anonydeath laughed and let go of Nepgear, who gave him a flat look of annoyance. "Really, honey, I promise, I haven't seen any..." He trailed off as Nepgear pointed behind him. Turning, his face plate lit up as an image of Lilac Heart in a very skimpy processor outfit was on his screen. "Oh POOH! I really need to be more careful with the Chirper!"

Nepgear shook her head and turned to leave. "Just find where my sister is." Stopping at the door, Nepgear wondered why she saw not only Neptune but Jupiter in mind, both of them giving her disappointed looks. "...Hey, Anonydeath?"

"Yes, honey?"

"Could you make sure to look into the Anti-CPU faction for me as well?" Nepgear turned back to look at him. "Figure out what they're doing and..." A look of pure disgust came across Nepgear's face as she spoke the next words, "make sure that they don't cause too much trouble for the other CPUs."

"...Honey? Are you..."

"I'm not okay, I hate them, but if faith in the CPUs falls too far then their divine protection of their nations will fade and people will be harassed by stronger monsters." There was a reason that only dogoos, boxbirds, tulips and horsebirds existed in Planeptune and none were very strong, and other than the border areas, which were furthest away from the Basilicom, there were no other monsters roaming around. "If a Tiamat runs around freely in Lowee, then things are really bad in the other nations."

"...You really are kind hearted. " Anonydeath said softly, shivering as Nepgear narrowed her eyes at him. "As for the Tiamat, that was probably my fault. Remember when I had the guild get the materials from those volcanoes?" Nepgear nodded at him and he poked his fingers together. "Well, I didn't mention that those volcanoes were on the border between Lastation and Lowee, so the monsters running loose were from them having their homes disrupted."

Nepgear sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Unbelievable. I can't believe this. YOU are the reason for that?!" Anonydeath nodded and she felt the urge to scream. "You're DAMN lucky no one was hurt by that, Anonydeath!"

Anonydeath cupped his chin as a thought came to him. "I would think you'd be happy if the other CPUs lost all their followers due to the actions of the Anti-CPU faction."

"...Do you know what happens when a CPU dies, Anonydeath?" Nepgear asked softly. "There's a very good reason why I never tried to kill Noire, Vert or Blanc, despite wanting to."

Anonydeath shook his head, this was something he had been wondering on for a long time now. "No, I don't."

"When a CPU dies, the divine protection that they gave the land disappears with them." Nepgear closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "When that happens, monsters start to run amok, natural disasters start to increase and the land itself starts to go barren and breaks apart."

"...And you would know this best, wouldn't you?"

Nepgear sighed softly. "When Purple Heart, my elder sister died, Planeptune quickly started to fall apart. A major part of the reason I didn't have much time to myself is because I was busy fixing the damage to Planeptune. Because no one knew I was Planeptune's CPU Candidate when Purple Heart died, no one had faith in me, thus I couldn't put out any divine protection."

"Honey, what about your younger sister?" Anonydeath asked softly. "Don't you think it's time to tell your nation about her?"

Nepgear trembled and looked down. "I... Is it alright to admit that I'm scared? That I'm scared what will happen when the other CPUs find out about her? That I worry that she'll become a target the instant it gets known she's a Goddess?" Her eyes widened and she looked up as a hand was placed on her shoulder.

"Honey, there's nothing wrong with being worried about your sister, or about the people of Gamindustri. In fact, that's one of the reasons I love you so much. You hate the other CPUs, but you care so much about the people that you won't harm them."

"...I'm still not marrying you."

"OH POOH!" Anonydeath put his hands over his chest and stumbled back overly dramatic. "Alas! Shot down again!"

Giving an amused snort, Nepgear turned and left. '...Thanks, Anonydeath, for listening to this frigid bitch.'

* * *

Oh hey, a longer chapter than before.

Hmm... Something something... Oh! I know!

* * *

"Welcome to Nepstation with your hosts Vert..."

"...And Noire. Why are we doing this?"

"We're the only CPUs that haven't done it yet?"

"But Uni hasn't done one yet."

"Don't ask me. Anyway, have you seen this?"

"Seen what?"

"Requests of the fans! They're huge C-Sha fans."

"Seems so. I don't get what's wrong with that."

"It's simple! As the busty blonde goddess of Gamindustri, I must do something to please my fans!"

"...I doubt any of your fans care."

"Nonsense! I came up with the perfect idea!"

"What? WOAH! Why are you stripping naked? WAGH! WHY ARE YOU STRIPPING ME?!"

"Because I know that if we get naked in front of everyone that our popularity will rise."

"No! Absolutely not! Besides, the creators don't have official naked models of us!"

"Too bad! Off with your clothes!"

"WAGH!"

"Good, now we're both standing here with everything hanging out. But... Where did these censor lights come from?"

"Lady Noire, I turned the censorship mode on for you!"

"Thanks, Marvy! ACK! Why are YOU naked?!"

"...I thought it was a naked party."

"No it's not! Gah! Next thing you'll know, we'll be going skinny dipping or something!"

"Funny you should mention that, Lady Noire! It's a pool party in the next chapter!"

"Really? They better not be skinny dipping! But I don't want to miss it either way! This is Noire..."

"...And Vert..."

"...And Marvy, all of us butt naked here, signing off."

"Someone turn the censor lights off so you can see my marvelous breasts!"

"No one listen to Vert!"


	16. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

So I completely screwed up. I accidentally skipped this chapter!

So some of you will see reviews for this chapter, they're meant for the NEXT chapter that I accidentally posted. WAAAH! I screwed up!

* * *

"There you are!" Jupiter jumped as she heard Ram's voice behind her. It had been a day since she had arrived in Leanbox with Uni, Rom and Ram and she had found her way out onto a balcony and was looking over the city. The warm temps, the gentle breeze coming off of the nearby ocean, the lush forests that surrounded the city, the volcanoes and mountains in the distance, it was a really nice place to be. "What are you doing? I hope you aren't thinking of jumping, I did that once and both Vert and Blanc said that if I ever did that again that they'd give me a big spanking!" Ram pouted, it wasn't fair! It wasn't even like she got hurt or anything either!

"...You jumped?" Jupiter asked, sure, Ram could transform, but why would she do something like that?

"I had a bungie cord strapped to me, I wanted to do some bungie diving because it looked really cool when the people on tv did it."

"Oh." Now Jupiter felt foolish. "Well, huh... So they really got mad at you?"

"Well, maybe I shouldn't have been all dramatic and said that I was going to jump and I lost all the will to live or act like I slipped and fell down." Ram had an embarrassed blush on her face. "Plus Rom cried her eyes out for days afterwords, so I promised to never do that again." The long-haired young girl huffed softly and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Yeah, that..." Jupiter sweat-dropped at that. "That might be why they got all upset at you." Ram giggled and rubbed the back of her head. "But, no I wasn't going to jump, I was just getting some fresh air."

"Oh." Ram smiled and walked over to the railing of the balcony next to Jupiter and took a deep breath. "Yeah, it's really pretty here."

"Can you tell me something?" Jupiter asked as she looked up at the sky. "What's it like? Being White Heart's sister?"

"Huh?" Ram was confused. "What do you mean? Blanc's awesome!" Ram grinned widely and giggled at what she said next. "Sure, she sometimes gets mad at us and chases us around, but then Rom and I drop buckets of water on her head or a bunch of pillows. One time we hit her with paint and feathers." Ram stopped smiling when she said that last part. "For some reason, Blanc looked really sad when we did that and walked off and didn't talk to us for the rest of the day. I think I heard her crying in her room after that for some reason."

Jupiter turned her head so fast that she was somewhat worried she might develop whiplash at hearing that. "...White Heart? Crying? ...Since when?"

Ram huffed in confusion. "I know! Rom and I apologized the next day because we thought she was mad about her outfit getting ruined or something. Blanc didn't even care about the clothes." Ram still hadn't figured out why Blanc had gotten upset about that.

"Huh, maybe she likes birds?" Jupiter asked, getting a shrug from Ram.

"I don't know. Would be weird if she cried over getting feathers dumped on her." Ram tapped her chin. "Anyway, yeah, Blanc's really cool, I don't know why you're so scared of her, just because you were told a lot of stuff from those bullies."

"It wasn't bullies." Jupiter sighed softly. "My sister lived during the Console Wars, she told me stories." So long as she kept details hidden, she was sure that the others wouldn't figure out who she was.

"Oh." Ram didn't know how to answer that. "Did she fight?"

"No, but she said she lost family members before the war ended." Jupiter sighed softly. "Even so, I want to say sorry." Ram looked confused. "Because I said mean things about your sister and acted like I did around her."

"Oh, it's okay." Ram gave her a smirk. "But! As punishment! You need to play with me and Rom ALL day!"

"...Play what?"

Ram grinned.

(-)

The citizens of Leanbox were treated to an unusual sight, even by Gamindustri standards.

"Onwards, horsie!" Ram cheered from her perch on Jupiter's back.

Seeing a little girl giving another little girl a piggy-back ride wasn't too unusual. Seeing said girl giving the piggy-back ride while running at a fast speed away from a short-haired girl crying about wanting a turn and a black-haired girl running after them to get them to stop making a scene was what was unusual. The more astute amongst the crowd noted that the girls were the CPU Candidates of Lowee and Lastation. While some people might wonder why they were in Leanbox, everyone in Leanbox knew that their CPU doted on those three girls constantly.

Jupiter was panting softly as she ran, trying to pace herself so she didn't need to stop and pass out. 'I guess carrying sis from her desk to the couch or to her room all those times helped out a lot.'

Turning a corner, she continued down the street but missed seeing a low-hanging branch.

Ram, however, did not miss the branch as it hit her clean in the face and caused her to get knocked off of Jupiter's shoulders. "GAAAAAHHH!" She screamed while clutching her nose and wincing in pain as her head hit the cement sidewalk.

Jupiter spun around and had a terrified look on her face as Ram screamed in pain. "Oh no! Ram! I'm sorry! I didn't see it!"

"Heal!" Rom was there almost instantly and started healing the damage that happened to her sister. "Don't worry, Ram, it'll go away."

Ram groaned as she sat up after her sister got done healing her. "Oww! Watch where you're running, dummy! If Rom wasn't here, I might have broken my nose!"

"And this is why I was trying to tell you to slow down with your running." Uni sighed as she saw Jupiter look terrible. "Hey, it's okay, Ram's fine now."

"I know, it's just..." Jupiter sighed and looked at Ram. "I'm sorry."

"You look like a sad puppy." Ram rubbed her nose. "Nothing's broken, so stop looking so sad."

"How about we go to the pool?" Rom suggested. "It's kind of warm, isn't it?"

"Pool?" Jupiter asked, causing the other three to look at her. "...What?"

"You've never gone swimming?" Uni asked, getting a shake from Jupiter. "Okay, you know what we need to do then!"

Jupiter started to sweat as the twins giggled and all three girls leaned in close with smiles on their faces. "Be gentle?" She whimpered.

(-)

"See?" Uni giggled as the four of them got to a store that sold swimsuits. "It's not so bad here." The two of them dug through various swimsuits. "I'm needing a new swimsuit anyway, my old one's starting to get a little worn out." Uni was sure that if she tried, she could stretch the usage of her current swimsuit out quite a bit and if it did wear out she knew Noire could fix it with ease, but she did want to try a new swimsuit on. Uni never saw herself as a girly girl, she had tried doing things that city girls did and found it extremely boring. Gaming, especially FPS gaming, taking care of her guns and building new ones, those were way more fun than clothes shopping or looking out for cute boys.

Uni probably wouldn't mind that last bit, but none of the boys she had met had any interest in her hobbies, plus she was always so busy helping Noire that she didn't think any sort of relationship like that would work out. And the few that could get past those first two hurdles only tried getting close to her either because they wanted to show off that they knew Lastation's CPU Candidate or were trying to be lewd perverts.

Sometimes Uni wondered what it would be like to have someone around that she could be in that kind of relationship with and have it actually work out. 'It-it's not like I'm that interested, I'm just curious, besides, I'm a girl too! I get lonely sometimes!' She mentally yelled at no one in particular.

"Um, Uni..." Jupiter spoke up, "are you okay? You're looking a bit flustered and upset."

"I'm fine! Totally fine! I wasn't getting upset about being the only one my age that's a CPU Candidate and the lack of people around or anything."

Jupiter blinked several times, trying to figure out why she would say that while she watched Uni's face turn red from saying that. "Um..."

"I'm fine!" Uni huffed and turned away. "Just fine."

Jupiter scratched her head in confusion. "Um, okay. Anyway, what about this one?" She pulled out a red bikini with a black stripe on the side. "I was going to try it on, you think it'll look good on me?"

"Hmm, maybe, go try it on and see, okay?" Uni couldn't tell if it wasn't on, but it didn't look sleazy or anything, so that was a plus in her book.

"Cool! I'll try it on!" Jupiter smiled and ran off to get a dressing room.

(-)

A few minutes later Jupiter came out of the changing room dressed in the bikini. "Well?" She asked as she stood in front of Uni.

Looking at the girl, Uni gave her a thumbs up. The bikini, now that it was on her, was a sporty type that looked like a red tank top with a black stripe on the side while the bottom wasn't anything fancy, just a basic red bikini bottom, though Uni did note, as Jupiter spun around slowly, that it fully covered her butt-cheeks. "Looks good. Hang on, let me find a swimsuit and then we can head on out."

"Cool!" Jupiter smiled and went back to change back into her normal clothes.

Uni eventually settled on a black bikini with ruffles across the chest on the sides of the bottoms. It wasn't much, but at least it would make her breasts look a little bigger. 'At least Jupiter, Rom and Ram don't have big breasts to tease me with.' She had seen Vert tease Blanc about her lack of breasts on more than one occassion, though that felt more out of habit than anything else, and was thankful she didn't have anyone teasing her about her boob size.

Even if Uni wasn't a girly girl, she still worried about things like her boob size.

(-)

"So how come we came back to the Basilicom?" Jupiter asked. The girls had paid for their swimsuits and left, but instead of heading to the local pool or a lake like she thought they were going to do, they went back to Leanbox's Basilicom.

"Because Vert wanted us to use her private, indoor pool!" Ram cheered, getting a smile from the other two girls.

"...Green Heart has a private pool?" Jupiter asked, getting a nod from the others. "Um, why?"

"So she can swim without having a bunch of people trying to perv on her." Uni huffed in annoyance, causing Jupiter to look at her weirdly. "Well, maybe she doesn't mind it that much, she always seems to giggle when people try to hit on her when we went to the public pool a couple of years ago."

"It's because Compa said it was good for IF to be able to swim and being in the water helps keep her leg from hurting, isn't it?" Rom asked, getting a nod from Uni.

"Well, that's the official reason at least." Privately Uni wondered if Vert was secretly perving on them like the guys at the public pool did. While Vert naturally got most of the attention when they all came to Leanbox, both Noire and herself had gotten a fair bit of attention. Even though she knew her sister was incredibly shy and had a hard time making friends because of her natural tendancies, she put up with it better than Uni did.

"Um, Uni..." Jupiter looked at her in confusion. "Why are you covering your butt?"

"No reason!" Uni's face turned red as Ram started to giggle. "Don't you dare!"

"That's because some pervy creep pinched her butt at the pool and she ran off crying."

"H, hey!" Uni's face was red. "That was really embarrassing, okay?!"

"But, Miss Uni..." Rom spoke up as they entered the pool area of the Basilicom. "Your sister and Big Sis Vert gave that creep a severe talking to and he was kicked out of the pool for what he did."

"HEY!" The four girls looked up and saw IF swimming around in the pool at a leisurely pace. "Come on! Get changed! The water's fine!" The pool itself was of average length, though from what Jupiter could tell, it didn't seem to get too deep as the deepest part seemed to be two meters in depth.

The four girls nodded and ran off to get changed.

A few minutes later...

"Cannonball!" Rom and Ram yelled at the same time as they jumped into the water.

Jupiter watched as Uni giggled and ran in after the girls. "Well..." She shrugged and jumped in herself. "GLUB!" Pushing herself to the surface, she gasped for air and started coughing. "BLEAH! I got water up my nose."

"Yeah, that happens." IF nodded as she bobbed over to Jupiter. Now that she was in the water, she could see that IF was wearing a blue one piece swimsuit.

"Are you okay to be in the pool by yourself?" Jupiter asked and IF pointed to the side and Jupiter turned to look to see Compa, in a light blue bikini that did nothing to hide her curves, and Vert, who was wearing a light green bikini that wasn't too skimpy, but considering how big her breasts were, the top seemed to be a size too small and put even more emphasis on her breasts than normal. "Oh."

IF smiled at her. "Trust me, I'm not stupid enough to try and swim by myself, I have trouble getting out of bed at night when I need to go to the bathroom these days after all."

"Oh." Jupiter frowned softly at IF. IF, for her part, merely shook her head.

"Don't worry about it, I only need one leg to swim after all." IF looked down. "Or in this case, to bob around the water." Both girls let out squawks of surprise as they were splashed with water. Turning, they saw, Rom, Ram and Uni giving them mischievous looks. "So, Jupiter... Want to show these three Candidates that you can't just splash people and get away with it?"

Jupiter grinned. "Way ahead of you." The two returned fire and the pool was quickly filled with the sounds of splashing and laughter.

Watching from the side, Compa smiled as she saw IF and the other girls engaging in a splash fight. "It's nice to relax, huh?"

"Indeed." Vert smiled as she watched them. "Compa, dear, if you wish to join in, I wouldn't mind."

"Lady Vert just wants to see my bikini bottom ride up my butt." Compa gave her a pouty look and Vert laughed softly.

"My dear, I told you, it's not like that, besides, even if I wanted to, I would never take you away from your duties to our Iffy." Vert smiled at her. "Now go have some fun, okay?"

"Okay, Lady Vert." Compa got up and ran for the pool, jumping in and joining IF and Jupiter in their splash war in a pincer attack on the CPU Candidates.

Vert could see that even though Jupiter was having fun, she was still sneaking some glances out at her. 'Paranoid girl, but that's fine, she just needs some time.'

(-)

Meanwhile...

Nepgear turned her head as her phone rang. She had just gotten out of the shower and was currently running the towel through her hair. Answering the phone and putting it on speaker, she wondered who'd be calling her personal number. "Hello?"

_"Oh, honey! I hope I didn't catch you at a bad time."_

"Anonydeath, I'm a bit busy right now, it better be important."

_"I didn't catch you getting out of the shower, did I?"_

"As a matter of fact, you did." Nepgear narrowed her eyes at the phone as she ran the towel over her arms. "Should I be concerned that you have a camera in my bathroom so you can peep on me?"

_"Well, I have cameras in the bathrooms of the other CPUs and their sisters, it would only be fair that I get to see you naked when you take a bath or shower, wouldn't it?"_

Nepgear bit her lip, she was tempted to transform and go smack some sense into Anonydeath, but refrained. After all, he DID have a point, as much as she didn't want to admit it. "Fine, whatever."

_"You don't sound embarrassed."_

Nepgear rolled her eyes as she rubbed her long legs down. "If you have a camera in here, then you've seen me naked plenty of times already and there's no point in me covering up. And if you don't have a camera in here, then you aren't seeing me naked, so there's no point in me covering up while I towel off."

_"Ooooh! Toweling off? Willing to share any juicy details?"_

"No." Nepgear answered as she wiped the underside of her legs off. "Enough flirting, what did you call me for?"

_"Ah,"_ Anonydeath's more silly voice was replaced by his more serious tone, _"remember when you asked me to look into the Anti-CPU faction?"_

"That was just the other day."

_"Yes, well, I wanted to remind you about that secretive Order in Lastation. Since they were doing stuff that was hurting little Noire, I thought I'd hack into their computers."_

Nepgear put the towel over her chest and started to wipe the dripping water off of her breasts. "Hmm, shouldn't they have been destroyed, deleted or otherwise disposed of? Don't tell me that Noire's trying to use them for something."

_"The thing is, honey, you'd normally be right. Noire, in fact, did order them to be destroyed, but I hacked her communication lines and had a fake order sent in telling them to be stored away. I'm glad that no one ever questions orders from a CPU."_

Rubbing the water off her back, Nepgear nodded before wrapping her hair in the towel and spinning it around a few times until it was in a cocoon above her head. "Right, so..?" She asked and walked over to where her clean undies were laid out to wear.

_"Anyway, even though the computers were off, they have ways to be turned on remotely, but the encryption and protections on the files were pretty intense. It will take me some time to get through."_

Nepgear had one leg in her panties with one leg raised when she heard that. "...That's impressive. You even got through our firewalls in under a day."

_"True, but I had to be directly connected to pull that off. Anyway, while I haven't gotten far in, I did find an interesting message that was stored on the computer."_

"Go on." Nepgear said as she finished pulling up her underwear and wrapped a robe around her body.

_"From what I can tell, the person in charge of that Order wasn't even the one calling the shots. Someone by the name of "Miss R" gave them orders to cause mayhem and problems for Little Noire."_

"That's an ominous name." Nepgear said as she undid her hair cocoon and sat down on a stool while pulling out a hair brush.

_"Quite. While I have no concrete leads, I figured the best place to look would be N-chan and Neppit. They have conspiracy boards that cover things that most people think are insane. Anyway, there's some stuff there, but nothing concrete, even the archives don't have much. But I thought it was worth a look, just in case."_

Nepgear nodded while brushing her hair. "Lovely." She sighed.

_"It'll likely take me a couple of weeks to get through all this encryption, and that's if I'm lucky. It'll most likely be a month, but I'll keep you informed."_

"Anonydeath." Nepgear spoke up. "Thank you. If you find some activity in the other nations, make sure that the information gets to the right people."

_"...I'm surprised, but sure."_

"I don't want people tormented by monsters because the other CPUs can't figure out what's going on." Nepgear bit her lip softly.

_"Sure thing."_

"Oh, and Anonydeath," Nepgear narrowed her eyes at her phone.

_"Yes, honey?"_

"I don't mind if you enjoy spying on the other three CPUs or their sisters when they're showering or bathing, and you're right about me being a hypocrite if I cared if you were spying on me when I'm naked, but if I find out that you're spying on my sister when she's naked and perving out on her, I will be upset."

_"Sure thing, honey."_ Anonydeath hung up and Nepgear sighed.

"...Wait, did I just tell him that I was okay with him spying on me when I shower?" Nepgear didn't think she did, but she didn't tell him that she wasn't okay with it. "...Urgh, just great." She grumbled as she finished brushing her hair out and started to braid it. Looking at the time, she sighed, it was still early enough to not go to bed, even if most of the work was done for the day.

Sadly it was too late to take any quests from the guild. Not that they wouldn't accept her taking any, but Nepgear didn't like doing quests at night. It was too easy for an assassin to sneak up and kill someone at night.

"Still, there's something I can do..." Nepgear sighed, she would have to see Anonydeath first though.

(-)

"Chu?" The rat looked up, trembling as Lilac Heart entered his cell and stopped next to his cage. "Y...You came back quickly."

"New information came to my attention." Lilac Heart said as she looked at the rat and leaned in close. "Tell me something, do you know a Miss R?"

The rat shook his head, his face turning red slightly. "Um, no, but you know, when you lean forward like that, I can see down your shirt and..."

"I don't care about your fetishes, keep them to yourself." Lilac Heart's voice stopped the rat cold. "So you know nothing of a Miss R?"

The rat poked his fingers together. "Um, well..."

"Out with it." Lilac Heart said.

"The people who gave me the order to smash up your factory, they all look... Kind of not all there." Nepgear gave the rat a confused look. "What I mean is like they look like they're on some sort of drugs or something. Their eyes are unfocused and they speak kind of weird, it doesn't feel natural, but the pay is good, so..."

"I see, is this common for the rest?"

The rat nodded. "Uh huh. If we don't get a message from Miss R directly we get these middle men and they all have the same look on their faces."

"Has it been going on long?"

The rat frowned in confusion and slowly shook his head. "No, it started about... I think two or three years ago. Before it was just Miss R sending us some random assignments every so often, but in the past couple of years we've had people giving us her orders and they've all looked like that."

"Good boy." Lilac Heart said and stood up fully. "Thank you for your help." She turned and walked out of the cell room, nodded at the guards and, when she was outside and alone, reached down the front of her outfit and pulled out a microphone that was connected to her cell phone. "Did you get all of that?" She asked before flying off into the sky.

_"Of course I did, honey. And thank you for that lovely show."_

Lilac Heart rolled her eyes. "Just because you helped clip this microphone under my outfit doesn't mean a thing." She figured he had watched her performance via the security cameras in the room and had probably taken the time to ogle her butt or something.

_"Of course, honey. Anyway, it sounds like those people the rat was talking about are all under some sort of hypnotic control. A couple of years though, huh?"_

"Something about that time frame bothers you?"

_"Well, perhaps it's just a coincidence, but the Order that I broke up began its operations in full about two years and eight months ago."_

Lilac Heart narrowed her eyes as she flew towards the Basilicom. "That's not a coincidence, is it?"

_"I don't know. The Order was heavy into drugs and other sorts of manipulation of people. I suggest you go home and rest tonight, honey. I'll keep a close eye on the other nations for you."_

"...Anonydeath, you aren't part of any sort of anti-CPU faction, are you?"

_"Me? Goodness no! Like I said, my dream is to have the two cutest CPUs, that is, you and little Noire, as my brides. But since I know you'll never go for that, I'd love it if I could have you to myself."_

Nepgear rubbed her forehead. "Again, it wouldn't work out between us. Even if I could or even if I did return your feelings, you're human, I'm a Goddess, my potential life-span is measured in the thousands of years, while yours is, at best, around one hundred years. I'd basically watch you grow old and pass on while I remained young. And that doesn't even factor in the fact that I have to fight very dangerous things that threaten Gamindustri and I could die in only a couple of years."

_"Honey, you're not as heartless as you think you are, so don't..."_

"Anonydeath, just stop, please?" Nepgear's voice wavered softly. "Please?"

The hacker sighed heavily. _"Very well, but my offer's always on the table."_

Lilac Heart mentally sighed as she landed on the top floor of the Basilicom and returned to her human form. "I know, but my answer remains the same."

_"Very well, but if you ever change your mind, let me know."_

Hanging up the phone, Nepgear sighed. Even if she wanted to try having a relationship like that, she knew it would never work out.

'Cold-hearted bitches like me don't get happy endings after all.'

* * *

How embarrassing! I completely skipped over this chapter!


	17. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

Also, this ended up being a very long chapter. I was almost tempted to split it in half.

So I accidentally posted this chapter a week early. Sorry about that. For those of you who already read this chapter and wonder why I posted it again as a new one, please realize that I fixed the previous chapter, so go back and read that one.

Really, REALLY sorry!

* * *

The next morning in Leanbox found Jupiter sitting at the breakfast table with Uni, Rom and Ram close to her and Vert on the far end of the table with IF next to her. The CPU was smiling peacefully while Jupiter looked around nervously. "Is everyone enjoying the pancakes that Compa made?"

"I am." IF commented as she ate a couple of pancakes slowly. "But if I get too used to Compa's food then I'll get fat."

Vert smiled at her. "Dear, don't worry, if you start putting on weight we have programs that you can use even with one leg to shed the extra fat."

Meanwhile Uni was looking at Jupiter with a mixture of disgust and curiosity. "You're not using syrup for pancakes?" It wasn't that Jupiter was going with nothing on the pancakes, she put something on them, but it wasn't what Uni thought was normal. Even Rom and Ram had reacted negatively and Vert had been surprised at the request for toppings.

"I'm kind of a messy eater sometimes." Jupiter looked a bit embarrassed at that. "When I was younger and had pancakes that my sis made, I loved them so much that I made a huge mess. Sis never let me use syrup again after that."

"But..." Ram looked at what Jupiter put on her pancakes. "That looks nasty."

"What?" Jupiter blinked as she mixed the ingredients on her pancakes. "Sour cream and brown sugar tastes awesome when mixed together." After finishing mixing it together, she took a bite of her pancakes and smiled in delight. "Mmmm! Right mix of sweet and bitter!"

"Is it really that good?" Uni asked as she took a bite of her own pancakes as Jupiter nodded. "I dunno, I mean it, huh?" She blinked as Jupiter cut off a small bit covered with her topping and offered it to Uni. "Um..." Uni's face turned red before she opened her mouth and took the offered food.

The others in the room giggled at Uni's flustered face while Jupiter looked at her with sparkling eyes.

As she chewed, Uni's eyes widened in shock. "Ith...Good!" She swallowed the pancake. "Wow, I've never thought of mixing those two things together, but that's really good!"

Jupiter giggled and went back to eating her food.

"Wow!" Vert spoke up, grinning at the two girls. "I didn't realize you two were such good friends that you don't mind having an indirect kiss."

Jupiter had a confused look on her face while Uni's face turned bright red while her eyes were white and blank. "Wh-wha-what are y-y-you talking about? We di-di-didn't k-k-k-ki-ki-ki-kiss!"

"Wow!" Ram's eyes gleamed mischievously. "Uni and Jup~i~ter! Sitting in a tree!"

"K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" Rom piped in, giggling as Uni got more and more flustered, her hair standing on end while Jupiter looked at everyone in confusion.

Pulling the fork from her mouth, Jupiter looked at Uni, who looked like she was about to pass out. "Why are they like that? I didn't kiss you."

"Y-ye-yeah!" Uni nodded while stuttering. "No kissing happened!"

"If I kissed you, it would be like this." Then, in front of everyone, Jupiter leaned in and planted a quick peck on Uni's cheek, causing Vert to put her hands over her mouth in surprise. IF gawked at the action while Rom and Ram just stared.

Uni, however, found that her face could turn even more shades of red as steam came out of her ears. "Wh-wha-wha-wha?!"

"See? I didn't do that, so the bite of food wasn't a kiss." Jupiter said as she went back to eating.

"Wh-wha-wha-wha?!" Uni's brain was unable to process what had happened before finally giving up and Uni fell out of her chair in a dead faint.

"Uni!?" Jupiter yelped and jumped out of her chair, diving for the girl before she hit the ground. "What happened?! What did I do!?" She asked while keeping Uni from hitting the ground, though it ended with her being bent over the chair in a somewhat awkward position.

"Oh dear." Vert giggled softly and stood up. "You over-stimulated poor Uni." She sighed as Jupiter looked at her in confusion and worry. 'So innocent and yet so bold.'

"Does this mean that Jupiter and Uni are girlfriends?" Rom asked Ram, who had a thoughtful look on her face. "Blanc said you're only supposed to kiss someone that you really like."

"Huh?" Jupiter had an even more confused look on her face if that was possible. "Girlfriends? Why would you ask that?"

"Oh!" Ram's eyes lit up in mischievousness. "Maybe this is like Blanc with..."

Whatever she was going to say was cut off as Uni groaned as she woke up from her impromptu nap. "Nnngh... What happened?" Opening her eyes she saw Jupiter above her looking at her with concern. "Jupit..." Suddenly she remembered what Jupiter had done moments prior before she glared at Jupiter with tears welling up in her eyes. "YOU JERK!" Uni screamed and slapped Jupiter, who dropped the dark haired girl out of shock.

Jupiter touched her cheek, hurt and confusion on her face as Uni scrambled to her feet and ran out of the room, crying how Jupiter was an idiot.

"Uh oh..." IF knew that this was going to be bad. "Tsunderes always hold a grudge." She muttered softly.

Vert sighed and stood up. She'd have to deal with this and soon. "Jupiter, we need to talk about this. Rom, Ram, can you two clean up?" The two nodded and Vert walked over to the nervous Jupiter before giving her a gentle smile. "You aren't in trouble, not with me at least, but I think you need to understand what you did wrong."

"Um..."

"LADY VERT!" Compa burst into the room, screaming in panic and causing everyone to look at her sharply. "It's horrible! A horde of monsters suddenly appeared in the city!"

"What?!" Everyone in the room yelled in shock. There was a flash of light and Jupiter fought the urge to jump back as she saw Vert change into her Green Heart form. Her loose hair was now in a ponytail, had changed to a green color, her eyes had gone from blue to purple and her outfit was white, but only covered her crotch and the top half of her large breasts on the front, though when Green Heart turned around Jupiter could see that her large butt was covered as well.

And not much else was covered.

"Rom, Ram, please assist me." Green Heart asked as the two girls nodded and transformed, wearing identical outfits, though their hair colors, blue for Rom and pink for Ram, were different. "Jupiter, if you can fight, please assist. Compa, can you find Uni and..."

"Already did, Lady Green Heart. I ran into her when I came here and told her, she took off."

Green Heart nodded and her wings formed on her back. "Rom, Ram, grab Jupiter and let's go." She would have done it herself, but she remembered what Blanc said about trying to do that with how Jupiter seemed to shy away from the CPUs.

"Right." Both Lowee CPU Candidates nodded and grabbed Jupiter by her arms and all of them flew out the windows to the city.

"Good luck." IF sighed and looked at her leg morosely. "Dammit!" She cursed and slammed her hands on the table. "I hate this! What good am I if I can't even help my friends when they need me!?"

"Iffy..." Compa looked at her sadly. "Come on, it's okay." She sighed as IF didn't answer. "All we can do is give Lady Green Heart and the CPU Candidates our faith, right?" IF nodded sadly and Compa patted her on the shoulder. "Come on, Iffy, when this is over, we'll go for a walk, okay? You've been cooped up too much lately."

IF smiled softly. "Thanks." They both knew she'd have to use a wheelchair, but at least it would be nice to get some fresh air.

(-)

"HA!" Uni, in HDD, let out a yell as she blasted several mechanical monsters. "R-4s, M-3s, Bits, R4i-SDHCs and..." She let out a shudder as she saw the last monster in the center that was destroying buildings and cars. "A freaking Killachine?" The R-4s and M-3s were similar looking, just different colors, sizes and over-all power being the difference between the two of them as the main bodies were designed similar to a lamp post that people would put in their yards to make it easier to see in the dark, but around the spike there was a black ring with several canisters, blue for the M-3s and purple for the R-4s that made them wider than what they actually were. On their backs were six prongs that made it look like they had wings. Bits were simple ball-shaped floating drones with a red eye in the center. R4i-SDHC was just a fancy name for a blue four legged tank with two laser cannons on the top. The Killachine looked vaguely serpentine in shape, though its head reminded people of a Dragon and it had two arms, one had a spiked mace in it and the other had an ax in it.

With the exception of the R4i-SDHCs, and Uni could see that there were plenty of those, and the Killachine, most of the monsters were fairly weak and easy to clean up. The problem was the numbers.

"Uni!" She turned to see Green Heart flying towards her while Rom and Ram carried Jupiter. She narrowed her eyes at Jupiter, but turned her attention to Green Heart. "What's the situation?"

"Dozens upon dozens of each of most of those mechanical monsters are down there from what I can see, there's probably a lot more." Uni turned and blasted a few more Bits out of the way. "The problem is that there's R4i-SDHCs and a Killachine down there."

"Not that thing!" Ram groused in dismay. "Even Blanc has trouble with those things." Thankfully there were very few and they rarely showed up, but whenever they did, it was just a pain in the butt to deal with.

"I'll deal with that." Vert said as she looked at it. "Make sure to deal with the rest." A circle appeared under her feet and she used it to launch herself at the Killachine, ignoring the blasts of energy from the tank-like R4i-SDHCs, as well as the R-4s and M-3s.

Flying to the ground, Rom and Ram dropped Jupiter down and took off into the air, calling up their staves and chanting while blasting the machines with ice blasts directly. Ram's blasts were more powerful while Rom's direct blasts were accompanied by falling ice and even some lightning blasts.

Meanwhile Uni continued to blast the R-4s and M-3s, grimacing that for each one she shot down, another five seemed to be taking their place. "What's going on? It's like there's a spawning machine or something nearby."

On the ground, Jupiter ran forward, slashing in wide arcs as she passed the robots, causing them to pixilate and shatter into bits of data. Spinning and sliding backwards, she flipped her blades so she was holding them in a reverse bladed stance. "Five!" She yelled while slashing forward at one of the M-3s, destroying it as it fell apart into five segments.

"AAAAH!" A girl's cry was heard and Jupiter cut down five bits before doing a flip over a R4i-SDHC and doing a spinning slash attack as she passed overhead, destroying the cannons and causing it to break apart.

"At least even those things aren't tough, even if they look strong." Jupiter muttered and ran for the voice she heard while twisting and dodging various shots. "Get..." She spoke while her blades started to glow. "Out..." The energy around her blades erupted and doubled the size of the blades. "Of..." She flipped the blade in her left hand around so that it was facing the same direction as the one in her right hand. "My WAY!" Doing a fast spin, a wave of energy washed out in a circle, destroying the machines all around her. Panting softly, she shook off her dizziness and ran forward, finding a girl with ashen colored skin, green hair and red eyes, wearing cargo pants and black boots, a halter top over her small chest and a hoodie that had a mouse motif on it. Above her were two R-4 units with their wings extended and charging up energy blasts.

"Oh man! I hate this! No one told me that it would be like this!" The girl's voice was gruff like a delinquent's voice would be. "This, huh?" She yelped as two swords flew over her head and slammed into the R-4 units eyes, causing them to pixilate before exploding.

"Are you okay?" Jupiter asked the girl, who was getting to her feet and dusting her pants off. "Um..."

"Just fine, don't you have something more important to do than check and make sure that some random citizen is hurt or something?"

"Um, no." Jupiter answered her. "If the citizens get hurt it just makes everything worse for everyone."

"Tch," the girl sneered at her in annoyance and turned to leave. "You sound like one of those annoying CPUs." She ran off, leaving Jupiter to blink in confusion before walking over to her swords and picking them up.

"Note to self, throwing swords only works in HDD mode." She couldn't return the swords in her base form and she liked these ones. "Now then, huh?" Jupiter blinked as she saw a purple disk on the ground by her swords. "Did that girl drop this?" She asked as she picked it up gently. "I'll just keep it for now." Putting the disk in her inventory, she grinned at the bits and R-4s that had converged on her. "Come on, ya bucket of bolts! I've got some frustration to work out and you're just the perfect punching dummies to work on!"

(-)

"Bit, bot, bit, bot." Rom sing-songed as she twirled her staff while spinning around and firing ice blasts at the various Bits and R-4s, each blast either punching through the machines or freezing them solid.

"This is too easy!" Ram laughed as she called up an ice tornado and spun several Bits and M-3s together, causing them to explode as they smashed into each other.

"Uh huh." Rom nodded. "Boom!" She chirped out as several explosions detonated on several R-4s, causing them to fall apart.

"Hey, Rom," Ram spoke up as she looked to the distance and saw several M-3s flying away. "I'm gunna go deal with those things, okay? Can you deal with these?"

"No problem." Rom smiled at her twin sister, who took off after the retreating robots. "Okay, now thAAAAAAAA!" Rom yelled as a powerful laser blasted her in the back and caused her wings to destabilize, sending her spiraling out of control through the air until she hit the ground hard, where she bounced a few times and slid to a stop on her hands and knees. "Owwies." Rom sniffled and looked up, seeing a bunch of M-3s and R-4s near her, their wings had popped off of her body and Rom's eyes widened. "...Be gentle?" She asked, hope in her voice.

"BEEP!"

Rom's face turned red. "YEEP!" She yelled as the prongs suddenly launched themselves at her, battering her over and over at every possible angle. "Owwie!" Rom had her hands up to try and protect herself from the attacks. "OWW!" Rom shot up as she felt one of the prongs slam into her butt in a very personal matter. "Mouuu! That's it you bullies! Ice Pillar Explosion!"

Ice surrounded Rom, forming a pillar around her, before it exploded outwards, sending spears of reinforced ice through the R-4s and M-3s, causing them all to explode.

As the ice fell from the sky, Rom floated there panting, an annoyed look on her face. "N, next time... Don't try to shove something into my butt, that hurt." Tears formed in her eyes as she rubbed the middle of her butt. "I won't be able to sit down right anymore!"

(-)

A ways away, Uni was looking through her scope as she locked onto more than a dozen Bits at the same time. "Scatter shot! Fire!" She yelled, pulling the trigger to her cannon and sending multiple energy blasts at the Bits, blowing them all away with ease. "This isn't too bad, but there's a lot of them." She looked to the side and saw Jupiter slaughtering a lot of them and scoffed. 'Why'd you do that to me? And then you don't mean anything by it? Does this mean that we aren't friends or something?' She thought to herself before noticing something unusual. "Wait, why are more forming around Jupiter?" Her eyes widened. "Shoot! Jupiter! Hold on!"

Even if she was confused, upset and bothered by what Jupiter did at breakfast, she still viewed the girl as a friend. And Uni had so few of those that she wouldn't let these random monsters take her friend away from her.

(-)

Green Heart snapped her fingers as she launched more than a dozen spears at the Killachine, causing the frame to be dented and not much else. "Dang it." She grimaced. "Try this!" She spun her spear in front of her before swinging it to the side as several stone-like spears erupted from the sides of the Killachine, denting the frame, but not doing much else. "They really don't make machine monsters like these old things anymore, huh?" Whatever the metal that made up the Killachine was, it was durable if nothing else.

The Killachine looked at her and its eye glowed red. "BEEP!"

Green Heart's face turned red at that. "Apologize! There might be children who hear what you had to say!"

"BEEP!"

"Wait, why am I arguing with a machine? I can't understand what its saying." Green Heart shook her head and tried to shake off going with the flow of the one-sided conversation. Her eyes widened as the Killachine was on her in only that short moment. Twisting to the side, she avoided the downward slash from the ax, but she couldn't avoid the mace as it slammed into her stomach and sent her flying into a nearby building. "NNNGH!" Green Heart sat up and grinned savagely while some blood escaped her lip. "Thanks for the wake-up call."

Zipping out through the hole, Green Heart blasted through the Killachine. "Not yet." She said and spun around, passing through it several times before bisecting its head and flying up. "Rust in pieces." Green Heart said before throwing her spear down and through the machine, causing it to erupt violently.

Letting out a sigh, Green Heart was thankful that her Spiral Break attack had been enough for that Killachine. A shadow loomed over her and she looked up, her eyes widening as another Killachine was charging at her.

"Ice Coffin!" Ram yelled, encasing the Killachine in ice, before it exploded and sent the machine flying away. "You okay?"

Green Heart nodded as she recalled her spear. "Yes." She had a nervous look on her face as she saw three more Killachines appear in the air. "This is getting out of hand. What's going on?"

"There has to be some sort of spawning machine nearby, right?" Ram asked, getting a nod from Green Heart.

"It's very likely." Green Heart wondered where the machine was and how there were so many. "Keep on your guard."

(-)

"Dammit!" Jupiter yelled as dozens of R-4s and M-3s started spawning in the air around her. "What's going on?!"

A dozen green energy blasts slammed into a bunch of the machine monsters, taking them out as they tried to get Jupiter from behind. "Get away from her!" Uni yelled as she flew in and landed behind Jupiter, her back to Jupiter's.

"Hey, Uni!" Jupiter smiled.

"Shut up! I'm still mad at you!" Uni growled, causing Jupiter to frown in confusion. "These things don't stop!" She groused in dismay as she fired shots at the machines, blasting them full of holes, only to watch as they were replaced by more.

"Maybe if we got them all into one area we could blow them all up?" Jupiter asked, causing Uni to blink in shock.

"That's a brilliant idea!" Uni called up her HUD. "Rom, Ram, Vert! Jupiter came up with a great idea! Let's get all these robots into one area!"

_"But there's so many of them."_ Rom pointed out. _"YEEK!"_

_"I'm up for whatever plan you got."_ Green Heart answered as she cut down another Killachine. _"At this rate we're going to either die from numbers or exhaustion."_

_"Rom and I can cast a really really powerful explosion and if Uni and Vert want to support us, that'll only make it bigger."_ Ram pointed out.

"I saw a big park on the way over here." Jupiter pointed out as she jumped over a laser blast and sent an energy wave back at the robot. "Maybe if we blow them all up at once they'll go away?"

"One problem, how do we get all of them to..." Uni suddenly ducked and grabbed Jupiter to the ground as hundreds of bullets swarmed the area, followed by blaster bits, damaging and destroying most of the monsters that were starting to swarm them.

"RRoD member Cave has arrived." A busty redhead with her hair in twin pigtails who wore a white outfit landed near the two girls, in her right hand was an over-sized pair of scissors. "Lady Black Sister, is there anything you could use some help with?"

"That was impressive." Both Uni and Jupiter muttered at the same time. Uni shook her head and stood up.

"Yes, how are the citizens doing?"

"Cleared out." Cave nodded to her. "Thanks to the efforts of myself, the Leanbox security forces and the OG division, there are no civilians in the downtown area." She narrowed her eyes as more of the robots suddenly started to materialize out of thin air. "This seems to be a problem. I doubt I could do Black Label all day to deal with them. Do either of you have a suggestion?"

"We need to get them to a big open spot and then blow them all up." Jupiter answered, getting a nod from Cave.

"The concert park would be ideal as it is close."

(-)

Green Heart and Ram looked at each other, nodded and took off in the direction of the park, both chancing a glance back and noting that the mechanical monsters were following them. "Now if only we could get all of the..." Green Heart trailed off as she her HUD display showed hundreds of red dots converging on the park. "Not looking a gift horse in the mouth, let's go."

"Right." Ram nodded and turned to blast at the Killachine, keeping the robots coming after them.

Along the way they found Rom, who had scuff marks all over her body from the attacks she had taken while dealing with the machines. "There's lots heading this way!" Rom called out, getting a nod from Green Heart and Ram as they zipped to the park, where they met Jupiter, Cave and Uni.

"Now what?" The white-haired CPU Candidate looked at Jupiter, who was looking at the park edges while machines started to converge on them.

"I didn't think that far ahead." Jupiter said with an embarrassed look on her face as Uni scoffed at her. "Um, I don't suppose anyone has any electromagnetic or plasma mines that can be detonated remotely and amplify the power of explosive attacks on hand?"

"As a matter of fact," Cave spoke up as several bee drones appeared around her, "these can be used to amplify the power of explosions if absolutely needed while keeping the explosion contained in a designated area. And, worse comes to worse, I can use Black Label to destroy them all at once myself."

"Do you have enough energy to do it again?" Uni asked, getting a nod from Cave.

"Do not underestimate me, Lady Black Sister." Cave said as she snapped her arm to the side and sent the bee drones across the park. "I know where the strategic points of the park is. Lady Green Heart, it pains me to do this to your park that you have set up for 5pb's concert tonight, but..."

"A small price to pay." Green Heart assured her. "Let us stop these machines first." The group of girls were surrounded on all sides by glowing red eyes and floating machinery.

Uni looked at her HUD and nodded. "As far as I can see, there are no more in the city, they should all be at the park now."

Green Heart grinned and put a hand over her mouth as she laughed. "Well then, let's send these machines to the scrap heap." Snapping her fingers, several spears were launched into the air while the four CPUs took to the air to thrash the machines that were flying above them.

Before Jupiter could do anything, she felt some clamps wrap around her arms. Looking at her arms, she saw some bee drones holding onto her. "Um..."

"I doubt either of us wish to be here when they decide to destroy everything." Cave said, her arms were clamped as well as the bee drones lifted the two of them into the air quickly. "I hope you do not get motion sick."

"Huh, why do you AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Jupiter cried out as she was whipped through the air as the drones made it so that she and Cave avoided laser blasts and falling debris. "I don't like this!" Jupiter cried out and thrashed her legs quickly.

"Calm down or the drones will drop you." Cave said as they flew around a falling, flaming Killachine that slammed into another one. Looking up, Cave raised an eyebrow as what looked like part of a roof was falling towards them. "I wonder where that came from."

"...This is going to hurt, huh?" Jupiter gulped before the debris exploded from a black energy beam piercing it.

"Hurry up! Those Killachines were tearing rooftops off and bringing them with." Uni called out before zipping back up into the air and shooting falling debris, kicking up dirt and dust in the process.

"I would if I could, but I can't make it go faaaaaaaaaaah!" Jupiter yelled as the bee drones suddenly shot to the side and launched her upwards followed by Cave.

Cave, unlike Jupiter, had a completely calm look on her face. "I don't really understand why you're freaking out, just relax and you'll be fine."

"Easy for you to say!" Jupiter's eyes were white and blank while she had an angry and annoyed look on her face.

"Just relax." Cave said as the two flew into the air which Jupiter found was getting colder and harder to breathe. "It's all over now."

"Huh?" Jupiter asked, looking around as several large ice cubes were forming around them. "Um..." She let out a yelp of surprise as the cubes exploded into a semi-liquid form and pooled just under their feet, before reforming into a large dome of ice.

"Ice dome enclose!" Both Rom and Ram called out and swung their staves down, causing the dome to drop down and expand until it was large enough to engulf the entire park, catching all the robots as they flew up after the girls and sending them to the ground.

"That worked..." Jupiter commented.

"It's not over yet." Cave said as the inside of the ice dome started to glow yellow. "Lady Green Heart! The explosion enhancement field is ready!"

"Alright," Green Heart nodded as she glowed with magic while holding her hands in front of her, a ball of magical energy spinning in front of her. "Rom, Ram, GO!" She snapped her hands outward and sent a wave of energy into the two CPU Candidates.

Giggling, the two smiled and crossed their staves while pointing down. "Hydro..." Ram began.

"Explosion!" Rom finished. "BOOM!"

As the dome shook and trembled, Jupiter frowned in confusion. "Um, Hydro as in water?" A water explosion could do the machines in, since enough water pressure could destroy almost everything.

"Nah uh. Hydrogen." Rom answered, causing Green Heart, Cave, Jupiter and Uni's eyes to all go blank white with black rings surrounding them as they looked at the twins in shock. "...What?"

"YOU JUST CREATED A HYDROGEN BOMB?!" All four yelled at the same time as the dome cracked while light escaped from it.

"Look out!" Green Heart rushed and grabbed Jupiter, hugging her to her large breasts and grabbed Cave while Uni grabbed the twins and they quickly vacated the impending explosion.

The explosion was tremendous, loud and flashy. It was actually an understatement, as the explosion caused a tremendous amount of wind to get kicked up and sent Green Heart and Uni tumbling out of control through the air. Cave had to grab onto Green Heart's side as tightly as she could to keep from flying away. Jupiter managed to get her head out from between Green Heart's breasts and chanced a look back and saw the explosion was a giant pillar, but thankfully it wasn't exploding outwards. However, the shock-waves from the explosion were destroying and damaging buildings, cars, trees and other parts of the city. From the force and size of the pillar, she wouldn't be surprised if everyone in Gamindustri saw it. 'I hope sis doesn't freak out if she sees this.'

Jupiter didn't get to think on it too much more as she was dropped roughly on her back on the roof of a building a few blocks away. She tilted her head back and saw Cave had been deposited on her butt while Green Heart crashed on her breasts with her butt high in the air. Turning her head, she saw that Uni, Rom and Ram were all laying on their faces and scuffed up from the crash. "Oww, is everyone okay?" She heard Green Heart ask as she stood up.

"I'll let you know when my ears stop ringing." Uni muttered and looked back, sighing in relief as the explosion died down. "WHAT THE HECK WERE YOU TWO THINKING?!"

The twins flinched and looked embarrassed over what they did.

"H, hey!" Jupiter got up and ignored the pain from her back and arms from the rough landing. "We're all okay, right?"

The twins nodded while Rom looked away out of embarrassment. "I, um... Read that a Hydrogen bomb was really strong, so Ram and I made a spell that could work, but we only used small amounts before and the explosions were really big, so..."

"We thought "hey, we need to blow them all up!" and we used a lot more than usual." Ram continued, causing Green Heart to sigh.

"I see, I hope that you realize that you should never, ever use that spell again." She gave them a stern look while crossing her arms under her breasts, getting a nod from the two girls. "Good. I'll have to discuss this with Blanc so she knows what you two have been up to." Green Heart was amused at how sheepish the two girls looked at that moment.

"At least the field kept that explosion from escaping the zone and causing tremendous damage to the city." Cave pointed out helpfully. She looked back at the explosion area and twitched. "Correction, the field kept the explosion from doing MORE damage to the city."

"Oh man!" Jupiter suddenly cried out as she looked back at the park, causing everyone to tense up and look that way. "The whole place is gone!"

As the other four looked back they could see that Jupiter was right, where there was once a park and a stage for the upcoming concert was now reduced to nothing but a hole in the ground with some broken pipes spraying water into the air uselessly.

"Goodness," Green Heart breathed softly and looked at the twins, who were gawking at their work. "I take it you now understand that using such an attack should never be used lightly?"

"Yes." They both said, their voices subdued.

"But it was cool, right?" Ram asked, getting an annoyed look from both Green Heart and Uni, causing her to look away. "It was..."

"I'm sorry," Jupiter said, causing everyone to look at her in confusion as the small girl was looking at Green Heart timidly. "It was my plan and it ended up like this, so I..."

"Dear," Green Heart gave Jupiter a gentle smile, "do not worry about it. While the loss of the park and stage is, indeed, worrying, it's easier to replace a park than it would be to replace the potential lives lost had we not been able to stop those machines."

Jupiter rubbed the back of her head and giggled softly.

"LOOK!" Rom suddenly called out in panic and when everyone looked to where she was pointing, they saw several M-3s starting to form in the air. "Didn't we get them all?!"

"You've got to be kidding me." Uni muttered. "There has to be something making these things spawn, but where could it be?"

Jupiter started looking around in the air, in random directions, hoping to see something, anything that could give her a clue.

"This is bad." Cave muttered, right now there was only a few of the M-3s, but they would soon be over-run by those monsters and eventually defeated. It was just a numbers game at this point.

"Hey, Uni..." Jupiter spoke up as she looked in the opposite direction from everyone else. Pointing to the distance, she looked at Uni. "Can you use your scope and look over that way? I think I saw something unusual."

"I don't know if you noticed, but the monsters are this way, not that way." Uni grumbled, but did as Jupiter asked and pointed her gun in the general direction Jupiter was pointing at and looked through the scope. "I swear, if this turns out to be... What the hell?!"

"What is it?" Green Heart asked as she looked at Uni, who was narrowing her eyes.

"There's a Bit, but it's red and kind of blurry. I got a clean shot... SNIPE!" She pulled the trigger on her gun and an emerald green beam raced through the air, seemingly bending through the air. "Dang it!" Uni groused as she saw that she didn't hit the bit, not cleanly at least. "I only clipped it. But I damaged it, and it's not blurry anymore. This time," she smirked and fired another shot, an identical long-range beam lashed out. "Got you! Target destroyed."

"Look!" Rom's voice was happy and everyone turned to look as the monsters in the air stopped before turning into data and disappearing.

"Looks like we found the monster spawn machine." Green Heart smiled and looked at Uni and Jupiter. "Uni, thank you for dealing with it. And Jupiter, how did you know it was there?"

"I saw something blink red a few times and I thought it was another type of Bit or something."

"Good thing you looked that way." Ram gave her a thumbs up. "I mean, Rom and I could have easily handled more of those things, but it's always better to win quickly than drag something out."

"Indeed." Green Heart clapped her hands together. "Now that we have that dealt with," she sighed and looked at the destruction, "I'll have to deal with the fallout."

"Lady Green Heart, should I call the media so you can make a statement?" Cave asked, getting a nod from Green Heart.

"Yes, I think it's prudent to reassure the people that the explosion was the result of dealing with the onslaught of monsters and that they shouldn't be worried."

Cave bowed. "It'll be done."

Jupiter looked at her body. "Um, Cave... What are you going to do about these bugs that are on my body?" When Cave snapped her fingers, the drone bees let go of Jupiter and hovered back to the redhead. "Thanks."

(-)

It was over ten minutes later in front the Basilicom when Green Heart stood in front of cameras with more than a dozen reporters from the magazines and news organizations from the various nations. After making sure everyone was set up, Green Heart looked at them calmly. "Earlier today there was a surge of monsters within the city here in Leanbox. We are currently assessing the damage to the city but we have no reports of dead bodies and for that I would like to thank the RRoD division, as well as the CPU Candidates of Lastation and Lowee for their help and others for their assistance to minimizing the damage and keeping casualties from piling up."

"Lady Green Heart, Famitsu here with the news. What do you think caused the monster attack?" The orange haired girl asked as she held up a recording device to get the answer clearly.

"At this point in time there is not enough information to accurately assess the hows and whys of the monster attack and I do not wish to speculate meaninglessly." Green Heart answered. "However, I will guarantee that I, as Leanbox's CPU, will get to the bottom of this so that it does not happen again."

Not far away, the CPU Candidates, now back in their human forms, could only watch in slight awe as Green Heart effortlessly dealt with the reporters, taking questions and answering them with ease. "I guess that's something you have to be able to do as a CPU, huh?" Uni asked no one in particular and softly sighed. She knew she would have to do that in the future, but she wasn't looking forward to it. 'Then again, even Noire has a hard time with the media, she never likes to talk to them.' She just chalked that up to her sister being naturally shy as she had never seen Noire interact with strangers too easily except in HDD. 'In fact, Noire always tries to get out of going to parties or when she has to go she tries to duck out early.' It was a bit unusual, but that was how Noire was.

Jupiter was off to the side looking at Uni awkwardly. Raising her hand softly, she spoke up. "Um, Uni..." She said softly and lowered her hand as Uni either didn't hear her or was ignoring her. "Well, this, huh?" She blinked as she saw a little girl with blonde hair and a red dress with two guys in full-body suits not far from the other reporters. "What's going on?" She asked and wandered over to the trio, wondering what they were doing.

As she got closer, Jupiter tilted her head as she listened to the girl speak into a microphone and to the camera. "Hello, loyal viewers. This is your on-the-field reporter Abnes bringing you exclusive commentary at the CPU's Basilicom." Abnes turned and gestured towards Green Heart who was talking to various reporters. "As you can see, Green Heart is trying to smooth over the truth that she is unfit to be the Goddess of this nation. Much like White Heart, who recently had to deal with out of control automatons and a large monster attack, and the CPU Black Heart had one of her resorts completely over-run with dogoos, a true CPU would never allow something like that." Abnes sighed and had a solemn look on her face. "It's with a heavy heart that's it's becoming more and more evident that Gamindustri's CPUs are no longer viable to defend us, the average citizens from monsters. And let's not forget the isolated nation of Planeptune. Perhaps their CPU..."

"Hey!" Jupiter interrupted, a slightly annoyed look on her face. "Don't you think you're being too hard on the CPUs? They're working hard to protect everyone. In fact, as soon as she heard about the monster attacks, Green Heart was out and fighting the monsters as were the CPU Candidates of Lastation and Lowee."

"And look, everyone, a CPU Apologist. Zoom in on this little girl so that everyone can see how simple and foolish their followers really are."

Jupiter had a confused look on her face. "Um, I'm not any of the CPUs followers." Which was technically true, though Jupiter figured that she was Nepgear's follower due to being her younger sister. 'Huh, is that how that works? A CPU Candidate is a CPU's follower? I guess so, but I never felt the urge to pray to my sister, I love her, but, huh... I'll have to ask Histoire when I get home.'

"Don't lie to me." Abnes was suddenly in her face and poking her in the chest. "You're defending those CPUs as if they were actually important to you. Speaking of which..." Abnes put her hand over her mouth and coughed softly. "Anyway, if the CPUs are such failures, what does that say about the CPU Candidates, huh?"

Jupiter gave her a flat stare. "That they're their own people? Are you from that Anti-CPU faction I've heard about?"

Abnes smiled proudly at her. "That's right." She closed her eyes and waggled her finger. "Regardless of what you think of the CPUs, the mere fact that there has been an increase in monster attacks lately cannot be denied." She turned and opened her eyes while gripping her mic and moved in a dramatic fashion. "Is it not true that a CPU's divine protection supposedly keeps us all safe? And yet you can all see that such a thing is a lie. Either there is no truth to this and the CPUs want your faith for foolish reasons or they have lost their power."

"That's not fair to them though." Jupiter protested. "They aren't..."

"And, of course, there's the isolated nation of Planeptune." Abnes shook her head. "While we know that their CPU, Lilac Heart, still lives, with the way she has isolated her nation, she must be an even bigger failure than the other three CPUs."

Jupiter stiffened, her pupils shrinking as she swore she heard something crack in the distance. "What... Did... You... Say?" It was a struggle to keep her voice neutral.

Abnes looked over her shoulder and gave Jupiter a small smirk. "It's true, don't you think?" She spun to fully face Jupiter. "Why else would she isolate Planeptune? I bet that country's on the verge of complete collapse and that CPU is failing at everything she tries and..."

There was a loud slapping noise and Abnes found herself on her butt, her cheek stinging as she looked at Jupiter in shock as the other girl stood there with her hand extended. "Don't you dare... Don't you DARE SAY THINGS YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!" Jupiter lowered her hand while screaming and giving Abnes a look that absolutely terrified the blonde girl. "What does a stuck up little girl like you know about anything?!"

(-)

Not far away, the CPU Candidates finally noticed that Jupiter was missing. "Huh?" Uni looked around in confusion. "Where did she go? Did she get lost again?"

"Look!" Ram pointed as she saw Jupiter standing over Abnes and yelling.

"Oh crap! That brat!" Uni growled and ran forward. "Come on, we need to stop this before it gets out of hand."

Rom and Ram nodded and chased after Uni.

(-)

"You... You slapped me!" Abnes yelled and got to her feet, her cheek still having an angry red hand imprint on it. "As you can see, loyal viewers, the CPU followers are just violent bigots who don't like any opinions other than positive ones for the CPUs."

"Do you have ANY idea what it's like to be a CPU?" Jupiter growled, her hands balled into fists as she glared at Abnes. "Do you know how much they have to sacrifice to protect their nation? Do you have any idea how hard it is for them to have a normal life? To have actual friends? Do you think they want it? Don't you think they'd all be happier being normal people? They live each day knowing that they could die tomorrow or they could outlive any potential friends by centuries."

"Feh, just excuses by a bunch of losers who fail at everything. Surely if they weren't such..."

Abnes found herself on her back as Jupiter hit her again, this time with a closed fist.

"Take... That... Back." Jupiter hissed, glaring full force at Abnes, her pupils were pinpricks as she stood above Abnes. "Take back what you said! Don't you dare insult..."

"Woah there!" Uni yelled as she, Rom and Ram suddenly appeared behind Jupiter and grabbed her, pulling her away. "No need for that."

"Bye bye, miss dummy." Rom said as they ran off with Jupiter, who was thrashing to get away from the other three.

Abnes scoffed and turned back to her camera. "As you can see, dear viewers, the CPU Candidates only showed up to try and make their darling follower not seem so bad. As for me, I can forgive that little girl, she doesn't know the horrors or failures of the CPUs like we do." She winked at the camera. "Well, don't worry, after a bit I'll return with more cutting edge, top of the line content for all of you. This is Abnes, signing off."

"And cut!" The one holding the camera sighed and put the camera down. "Are you okay?"

"Hell no!" Abnes yelled, groaning as she rubbed her sore cheeks. "Dang it, I'm going to have such a bad bruise!"

"Um..." The other guy was looking at a laptop and staring in shock. "Miss Abnes..."

"What?" She glared at him.

"We apparently got disconnected awhile ago."

"HUH?!" Abnes pushed that nameless guy to the side and stared in horror as the feed cut off just before her confrontation with that purple-haired girl. "N...No way! You made sure that all our equipment was up to date, right?" The man nodded and Abnes turned towards the camera operator. "Please tell me that you had the whole thing recorded?"

"Of course I did." The man hit the playback on his camera and stared. "...Or not. I must have hit stop instead of record."

"SUNNVABITCH!" Abnes screamed in frustration.

(-)

"Ah ah ah..." A soft voice said in the darkness. "There's no need to reveal anything about Honey's cute little sister, you Anti-CPU faction hack." Anonydeath's face-plate had no expression, but if one could see his face, they would see that he was glaring at the screen in front of him. "I'm glad that you told me that you were part of that faction. I hope you don't mind if I dig through all of your phones and laptop while you cry about not getting to record Honey's cute little sister. You don't? Well, that's good. Of course, I don't care if you do or not." Anonydeath giggled as information from the laptop and the phones came in. "Really, people need to practice encryption. Eww, naked selfie of Abnes?" Anonydeath shuddered. "The only people I want a naked selfie of is little Noire and Honey." Anonydeath tapped his chin and looked up. "Hmm, maybe I should ask Honey for a naked selfie in the future?"

"You want me to do WHAT?!" Nepgear's voice had Anonydeath stiffening in shock before he spun around to see a very unamused Nepgear glaring at him.

"Honey! When did you get here?"

"When you were complaining about not having encryption on phones and wanting a naked selfie of me." Nepgear sighed while glowering at him. "Why would I do that?"

"...I wouldn't ask for an entire paycheck if I could get some naked selfies from you."

Nepgear was silent while she gave him a look that was somewhere between unamused and flat-out amazed. "...Really?"

"Yes!"

Nepgear sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Enough of this. What the FUCK happened in Leanbox?!" Anonydeath tilted his head and Nepgear started to pace back and forth. "I was just doing a quest when I hear an explosion so loud that the trees started shaking. I flew up and saw a pillar of energy in the direction of Leanbox. So what happened?!"

"Sadly I know as much as you do." Anonydeath shook his head. "I'm getting all the reports right now, however, I do know that there was a monster invasion in the main city."

"...Did the monsters all self-destruct to try and blow up the city or something?" Nepgear asked, a contemplative look on her face.

"I don't know. If this was a weapon by Leanbox it was done is such secret that even I don't know anything about it." Anonydeath answered her. "And trust me when I say that should be nearly impossible."

"It's fine." Nepgear answered him. "Just find out what it was, how Green Heart deployed it, see if Black or White Heart have similar weapons and help develop counter-measures." She narrowed her eyes and balled her hands into fists. "I knew those three couldn't keep the peace. I won't be caught unaware."

Anonydeath looked at her. "...Honey..."

"Yes?" Nepgear looked at him.

"I promise you, I'll find out what happened and I'll let you know as soon as I do. Just promise me that you won't try to go to war as soon as I know."

Nepgear narrowed her eyes at him. "If it's a weapon that Green Heart is planning on using on Planeptune, I refuse to let it go."

Anonydeath nodded and sighed as Nepgear turned to head to the Basilicom to deal with the scared citizens and reassure them that no harm would come to them. "Oh honey..." He sighed softly.

* * *

So let me do some quick breakdowns here.

1: Sour Cream + Brown Sugar is delicious, t'was something mom showed me when I was younger. It's a unique flavor and takes time to get right.

2: No, Jupiter is not trying to lewd Uni, this will be explained later.

3: OG Division is from the Neptunia manga.

4: If you played the game Super Dimension Neptunia Vs Sega Hard Girls, you might remember what happened in the Gear era, where people openly bad-mouthed both Nepgear and Game Gear and there were lots of people against gaming due to the past battles between the CPUs and the Hard Girls, IF, Segami and Nepbike all almost got murdered by an angry mob when they said the wrong thing. In this world, due to the fact that there's been an on-going war for the longest time between the CPUs of the nations, the Anti-CPU faction is seen by the CPUs as angry citizens who bad-mouth them constantly.


	18. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

So I've decided to start posting two chapters a week from now on. One on Sunday/Monday and one on Thursday.

I'll keep it up so long as you guys are reading and reviewing each chapter.

* * *

After getting away from Abnes, Uni, Rom and Ram dragged Jupiter, who had stopped thrashing after they got away from Abnes, and dumped her on her butt on the floor in the meeting room.

"Oww!" Jupiter whined and looked up, gulping at the annoyed look on Uni's face while Ram was giving her a mischievous look and Rom had an amused look on her face. "Um..."

"What were you thinking?" Uni hissed, causing Jupiter to wince. "I get it, she's annoying, we've dealt with her before, and no matter what you do, she just spins it to showing how bad we CPUs are."

Jupiter frowned at the upset look Uni had and stood up. "So you just let her spew her lies without even trying to fight back?"

Uni sighed heavily. "You think we haven't tried to fight against her disinformation campaign?" Uni looked away and Jupiter could only look at her in confusion. "We've tried various methods, but they only seemed to make things worse."

"Did you try talking to her?" Jupiter asked, getting a sigh from Uni, who nodded.

"Both my sister and Vert tried to have an interview with her, but she asked the stupidest questions and always twisted the answers to make them look worse."

Jupiter saw how upset Uni was looking and sighed. "Oh. ...I'm sorry, I guess I made everyone look bad, huh?"

"Actually..." Uni smiled at Jupiter softly, causing the purple haired girl to look at her in confusion. "Hearing you defend the CPUs and seeing how you upset you got, it was nice."

"Yeah!" Ram grinned and gave her a thumbs up. "You totally showed that stupid bully."

"Does this mean you don't hate our sister anymore?" Rom asked, causing Jupiter to wince and look down.

"I... I don't know." Jupiter trembled and screwed her eyes shut. "I just... I heard so many things about how the CPUs were, but seeing how they are now, seeing you three, meeting Compa and IF..."

Jupiter blinked as she felt a pair of hands on her shoulders. Looking up, she saw Uni smiling at her softly. "Hey, sometimes people change in their lives. None of us knew what our sisters were like in the past until you brought it up."

Jupiter sighed and looked down. "But..."

"Miss Jupiter..." Rom spoke up, causing Jupiter to look at her. "It's okay. You're not like those Anti-CPU bullies."

Jupiter smiled softly. "Thanks."

"Still, that was a wicked punch!" Ram threw a punch similar to what Jupiter did into the air. "Like BAM! POW!"

"Well, I wasn't trying to send her to the moon or anything." Jupiter said, rubbing the back of her head. "Then again, I don't know anyone strong enough to do that."

Uni giggled at that. "That would be hilarious, a CPU that's as small as Rom or Ram and can punch someone to the moon."

"Terrifying would be more like it." Jupiter shuddered at the thought of someone that strong running around and wondered why she felt the urge to cover her solar plexus from incoming headbutts.

A moment later, Green Heart walked in, a tired expression on her face before she let out a sigh and reverted to her human form. "Goodness, staying in that form for extended periods is exhausting." She gave the four girls a stern look. "While I do appreciate the help you four gave me, please refuse from making a scene while the reporters are there. Thankfully they were more interested in interviewing me than seeing what some rowdy teenagers were up to." Her stern look soon melted after she saw the sheepish looks on all their faces. "That being said, Jupiter, I saw and heard what you did while I was answering questions, I don't completely approve of what you did, but I do find that Abnes girl so annoying that I can't bring myself to be completely upset."

"I'm really sorry." Jupiter said, rubbing the back of her head while looking sheepish. "It's just..."

"Dear, it's okay." Vert smiled at her. "Your plan stopped the mass-spawned monsters, even if it destroyed the park." She sighed heavily. "Sadly, I will need to assess the damage to the city and allocate the funds for it."

Jupiter winced heavily. If Nepgear heard about this, she just knew her elder sister would not only be upset about the damages since Jupiter was at fault, but also how much it would cost to repair everything. "Um... How much..?"

"Don't worry about it." Vert smiled at her. "Sadly, I won't have any real information for a couple of hours." She clapped her hands. "So why don't all of you just go and relax, hmm? I have some games in the game room that I'm sure that you'll just love."

Rom and Ram cheered while Uni smiled and nodded. Before Jupiter could respond, there was a ringing from her phone. "Sorry." She looked embarrassed and pulled the phone out, frowning in confusion at the number, before answering it. "Hello?" She asked and walked off to the side while the others left the room.

_"Hello, cutiepie. You really did a number to that annoying girl, Abnes."_ A voice that had feminine inflections while being deep enough to be confused for a guy answered the phone.

"Um, who's this?"

_"Call me Anny, cutie! I'm an associate of your sister's."_

Jupiter's eyes widened upon hearing that. "R-really?"

_"Indeed, now I'd love to chat with you about how Honey's doing and how I think she misses you more than she's letting on, we need to talk."_

"About what, Anny?"

_"Ooooh! So nice to have a Planeptune CPU call me that!"_ Anny practically swooned in delight over the phone. _"Anyway, that big boom certainly freaked your sister out."_

Jupiter winced, she could understand why. "Is she..."

_"She thinks that Leanbox has a weapon to use against Planeptune and was testing it."_

Jupiter's pupils shrank. "But that's not..."

_"I know. Unless Green Heart had something that I never heard of, I'm pretty sure that Honey's freaking out over a random occurrence."_

"...Are you sis's boyfriend or something?"

_"OOOOH!"_ Anny suddenly squealed in delight. _"You wouldn't BELIEVE how happy that would make me if she decided to take me up on my offer to be more than just associates. Why, I'd go so far as to have her as my bride."_

Jupiter blinked and tilted her head. "Have you asked her?"

_"More than once, but she keeps shooting me down. Alas, I would love it if she just accepted my advances, just once. Anyway, enough with this, though I would love to keep talking about your sister, I have to ask you something. During the monster mash, was there anything unusual in the fight?"_

"Yeah," Jupiter narrowed her eyes as she thought back to everything. "There was a red Bit that was acting as a monster spawn."

_"Is that it? You didn't find any random items or anything?"_

Jupiter's eyes widened as a memory flooded her mind. "Actually, wait, lemme... Ah, right here!" She pulled a purple disk out of her inventory. "I found this disk..."

_"I see that. Okay, listen and listen well, the CPU and those three cute candidates are down the hallway setting up some game stuffs still. See the computer in the room?"_

"...Wait, are you seeing me?"

_"Cutiepie, I have every Basilicom except your sister's under 24/7 surveillance. Before you get upset with me, your sister asked me to do so, to make sure that we kept up on their movements in case they tried to take any action against Planeptune."_

Jupiter's eyes crinkled in confusion. "But they..."

_"Cutiepie, I know. Now, take that disk and get it into that computer. You could use a game console as well, I just need something that's connected online."_

Jupiter nodded and walked over to the computer and booted it up before putting the disk in. "Are you sure that this will.."

_"Cutiepie, I don't even need to be there, since it's connected to the internet, ah, there we go, already in."_

Jupiter's eyes were white and blank as the implications quickly set in. "You're a criminal!"

_"Ah ah ah! I'm not a criminal if I'm working for the government, now am I?"_

"But sis..." Jupiter trembled, unable to believe that her sister would employ someone to steal secrets of the other nations. "Is this why Planeptune is so far ahead of everyone else? Because we steal everything?" Tears sprang to her eyes, she couldn't believe her sister would be like that.

_"If you're worried about Honey actually using me for underhanded means, please stop worrying."_ Jupiter blinked as she listened to Anny speak. _"When it comes to advancements of your nation, that's all Honey. I'm mostly used to keep an eye out for nasty surprises and nothing else."_

"...Do you mean it?"

_"At the very least, Honey never asks me to steal secrets. Hmm, that's interesting."_

"What?"

Anny sighed. _"Well, I found out what this disk is. It's a monster containment disk. And before you ask, those have been impossible to make for the past ten years. I don't know why exactly, but I do know that they disappeared shortly after the end of the Console Wars and my research showed anyone who actually tried to make them failed and... Oh my. This is bad."_

"What?" Jupiter asked, trembling.

_"Get that disk out of the computer, now!"_ Anny ordered Jupiter, who yelped and did just that. _"When you have a chance, destroy it."_

"Why?" Jupiter put it back in her inventory. "Is it cursed or something?"

_"Or something. Listen, whatever you do, do NOT let the other CPUs know about this."_

Jupiter had a confused look on her face. "Huh? But why?"

_"Because that disk was made with Planeptune tech and data."_ Anny's voice was serious and Jupiter felt her knees give out on her as she fell to her butt in shock.

"But... There's no way..." Jupiter mumbled, her voice trembling. "Sis would... Sis..."

_"Calm down, Cutiepie! Listen! I've known Honey for several years now, and I know for a fact that she would never do something that would put the citizens of Gamindustri in peril. Whenever I did something that might even POSSIBLY hurt any citizens, she got mad at me. I can tell you that this wasn't Honey."_

"You're sure?" Jupiter whispered softly, tears in her eyes. "You mean it, Anny?"

_"Yes."_ Anny answered her. _"Honey may hate the other CPUs and has vented to me about them on more than one occasion, but she would never do this. Let me tell you, Cutiepie, the disk was made with Planeptune tech, but the real reason you need to destroy it is because it wasn't hidden."_

"...Hidden?"

_"If this was something Honey did, she would make sure that if the disks got found out that it couldn't be traced back to Planeptune. That means it's someone else..."_

"...Someone who has access to Planeptune technology..." Jupiter said softly, her face going pale. "And wants to harm people..."

_"Cutiepie, destroy the disk when you get a chance, unleash your EXE Drive on it if you have to, but do NOT let anyone scan that disk. If they do..."_

"They'll think sis just declared war on them." Jupiter finished for him. "But sis doesn't want to fight."

_"You're right. Even when given chances to kill the other CPUs for what happened, she never took them. So, Cutiepie, destroy the disk, I got enough information from it to piece stuff together."_

"...Anny." Jupiter said softly as she trembled. "Please... Help sis."

_"...I do all I can for her."_

"Thank you." Jupiter smiled softly as she hung up.

(-)

After hanging up the call, Anonydeath frowned from behind his suit. "This makes no sense, even if the tech is from Planeptune, no one's been able to use monster containment disks in over a decade now." Folding his hands in front of him, Anonydeath put his elbows on his desk while resting his chin on his hands. "If someone has managed to find a way to reactivate them, or even worse, create new ones, things are looking very dire for everyone."

As the data on the screen rushed by as he analyzed it, one name kept popping up.

"Miss R, huh? Just who are you? And how do you have access to Planeptune technology?"

One thing was for certain, Anonydeath would find out who Miss R really was. "I'm almost worried that Miss R is actually Honey with a split personality and it's her name spelled backwards." Anonydeath grimaced under his helmet, he really didn't want that to be the case. "But... Could it?" After all, Nepgear did hate the other CPUs, and even if she would never kill them due to what would happen to their nations and the people within, Anonydeath couldn't help but be worried. "If Honey does have a split personality..." Anonydeath sighed, he didn't want to feel like this towards Nepgear. "What to do?"

The decision would have been so easy if he hadn't fallen in love with her.

(-)

Back in Leanbox, Jupiter was walking down the hallway where she heard Rom and Ram's voices. "Hey!" She called out when she got into the room. "Sorry about that."

"Dear, it's okay." Vert smiled at her. "We all get phone calls when we least want them."

"So what do you have here?"

"A dancing party game." Vert smiled as she finished setting things up. "I was just about to come get you to join us."

"Ah, neat." Jupiter smiled as Vert suggested she and Uni start them off. "I've seen these in the arcades."

"Yeah, but those require special equipment that most homes don't have." Uni said as they stood in front of the Leanbox Kinect camera. "Obviously a Basilicom has the room, but the average home or apartment doesn't have the space for such equipment."

"Right," Jupiter nodded at her, "that's why CPUs develop systems that can fit anywhere."

"Let's start off with something easy." Vert said and selected a song. "Just follow the motions on the screen, the camera sees all."

Jupiter sweat-dropped at that. "Everything? Wait, does that mean it can see our underwear?"

Vert laughed at that as Uni's face turned red while she, Rom and Ram grabbed their skirts and tugged them down. "No, dear, that's not what I mean. I mean that it will record all your motions and movements with ease."

"Oh." Jupiter nodded and looked around in confusion. "...Um, stupid question, but where are IF and Compa?"

"They have to do work." Vert answered her. "As IF is one of my secretaries, her job is to greet people at the door and check appointments. Compa has to be close by in case something happens to IF."

"Oh." Jupiter nodded, she couldn't imagine how it had to be for IF to have a nurse on hand all the time for everything. "Sounds rough."

"It can be." Vert nodded. "I would have let Iffy live here free of charge, but she insisted on doing something to contribute and so..." Vert trailed off, shaking her head and sighing softly. Personally, she found it a bit silly, but it was important to IF and Vert could understand pride. After all, the Goddesses had pride as well, if Iffy's pride wouldn't let her become a charity case, then Vert wasn't going to stop her.

"Okay." Jupiter nodded as Vert selected a song.

"Anyway, why don't you two show us what you can do?" Vert asked and stepped back as the song started to play.

Uni grinned, it was a fast paced song with heavy bass and a good beat. "Don't be too embarrassed when you lose."

Jupiter smirked back at Uni. "Nah, I've never done this before, but try not to fall over and need someone to grab you before you hit the ground."

Uni gave her a confused look for a moment before shaking it off as the game started in earnest. "I'll show you that you can't underestimate me."

As the two moved back and forth, waving their arms and moving their legs, Vert giggled while she used her phone to record them moving, spinning and shaking their hips before jumping from one leg to the other and rocking their arms up and down.

"You know," Jupiter panted softly as she felt her hips brush against Uni's while the two were shaking their butts back and forth in time with the music, "this is a lot more intense than I thought it would be."

"Heh, you think?" Uni smirked as the two turned away from each other and jerked their hips back, forcing their butts to squish against each other.

Off to the side, Rom tugged on Vert's sleeve. "Miss Vert, that dance looks kind of... Lewd."

Vert giggled softly. "Somewhat, I chose it because I figure if they were focusing on the song they wouldn't remember what happened this morning." She whispered to Rom. "After all, we're all friends."

Rom nodded, it made sense now.

Ram just grinned as she watched. 'Everyone online would love this!' After all, seeing a Goddess doing something funny, silly or somewhat lewd always brought in a bunch of shares!

"You best be ready to lose." Uni panted as the two really got into the dance.

"At least I won't run away crying if I do." Jupiter shot back as both girls were panting, sweating and moving completely in tune to the music. As the song wrapped up, both girls found themselves in a three point stance, their right hand in front of them on the ground as they were bent over. Looking at the screen, they watched as the score was tallied up.

"Look! Uni won!" Ram pointed out as the girls straightened up, Jupiter looked somewhat disappointed, but not upset while Uni had a happy expression on her face.

"Well of course I did." Uni smiled at Ram while she tried to get her breathing under control. "I have more experience in this than Jupiter does."

"Yeah, plus it would suck if you ran off crying because you lost like you did at breakfast." Jupiter said, causing Uni's eyes to white and blank at hearing that.

"That was because you kissed me in front of everyone! You jerk!" Uni yelled suddenly, causing Jupiter to look at her in confusion. "You just up and did that like it was no big deal and then you go and bring it up right now!"

"...But it wasn't..."

Uni narrowed her eyes in anger. "Oh! So that's how it is, huh? You just kiss any random person if you can, their own personal feelings don't matter, huh?"

"Um... That's not..."

"Uh oh..." Vert sighed, she knew what was going to happen. She had seen this enough with Noire to know that Uni was probably very similar. Standing up, she walked over to the girls before words could be said that would only damage their friendship. "Now, now, Uni, please calm down."

"But she..." Uni's protest was stopped when Vert put a finger on Uni's lips, causing her to blush.

"Allow me to talk to her, okay?" Vert asked, getting a small nod from Uni. "Jupiter, dear..." She pulled her finger away from Uni's lips and looked at Jupiter, who was looking confused and frustrated. "Would you be so kind as to follow me so we can talk in private?"

"...I'm in trouble, aren't I?" Jupiter asked as she tried to ignore Uni's glare while she followed Vert out of the room.

After they left, Uni let out a scream of frustration, causing Rom and Ram to both back up as Uni started muttering out profanities and other things.

"Ram..."

"Yeah, Rom?"

"Uni's like our sister at times, huh?"

Ram nodded at her. "Yeah, especially when dealing with confusing grown-up things."

Both the younger candidates sighed, whenever they asked about why Blanc started swearing, cursing or grumbling about "a certain stupid partner", they were always told they'd find out when they were older.

(-)

"Um..." Jupiter gulped as she saw Vert's stern look. "What did I do?"

Vert's expression melted to a more understanding one as she sighed. "You really have no idea what you did wrong, huh?" The confused look and tilt of Jupiter's head told her everything she needed to know. "Very well." She walked over to a chair and sat down and motioned for Jupiter to sit not far away from her. "I guess that Uni's reaction has confused you, hasn't it?" Jupiter nodded and Vert gave her a small smile. "Alright, you see, Uni isn't always honest with her feelings and she puts up an outer shell that portrays her as a bit grumpy. On top of that, she gets easily flustered when dealing with new things."

"So what does that have to do with getting angry?" Jupiter asked as she knitted her eyebrows together in confusion.

"Because anger is easier to understand in the heat of the moment." Vert answered her. "Her sister, Noire, that is Black Heart, is very similar." She held her hands up when Jupiter tensed up. "Please, calm down, even if they get upset fairly easily, the two don't resort to violence very often." In fact, Vert knew that Noire had lost her desire for conflict after the end of the Console Wars. Privately the Leanbox CPU was worried that Noire and Blanc had lost their drive to compete and improve themselves and their nations since the formation of the friendship treaty. It wasn't like the two had stopped caring or had gotten lazy, but the fire, the edge that they had for all those centuries in Celestia, as well as the many years on Gamindustri proper, just wasn't there for them anymore.

"Okay..." Jupiter nodded slowly.

"To top it off," Vert sighed softly, "poor Uni lacks friends her age. I'm not talking her actual age, as a CPU Candidate she's mentally the age that she is physically. But rather her mental age." Jupiter nodded, knowing that. "As such she has no one she can hang out with to have fun, relax and unwind after work with. I dare say that you are probably the first real friend she's ever had in her entire life outside of us CPUs." There was Compa and IF, but Uni couldn't see them very often, so Vert didn't count them.

Jupiter was stunned, "but she's so friendly."

Vert suddenly broke into giggles at hearing that. "Oh my, I wonder what kind of people you hang around if you find a tsundere like Uni to be friendly." Jupiter tilted her head in confusion and Vert shook her head. "Never mind. Beyond that, Uni has no friends her age, much less anyone who's shown her any sort of romantic interest."

"...What does that have to do with why she's upset?"

Vert raised an eyebrow at that. 'You're that dense, huh?' She thought to herself and sighed softly. "Jupiter, dear, Uni might be a CPU Candidate, but like any of us, she still has desires and urges that she can't satisfy on her own. And she's at an age where she might want to find a boyfriend or a girlfriend to hang out with and do fun things with. But due to her position as a CPU Candidate, it's hard for her to connect to people on that level." Vert was privately worried that Uni had given up on finding anyone to make that kind of connection to after that disastrous pool party not too long ago that had her running out in tears. "As for why she got upset, you see, the fact that you kissed her out of nowhere this morning only confused her."

"...Huh?"

"I do believe that you were the first person to ever give her a kiss of any sort." Vert explained to her. "A girl's first kiss is important to them after all."

"...It is?" Jupiter asked, blinking in confusion. "I mean, she's the first person I ever kissed."

"...I'm not sure if I should be impressed or flabbergasted." Vert said with a bemused expression on her face. "Okay, Jupiter, dear, Uni probably had this fantasy built up in her mind that her first kiss would be on a romantic date or something and that things would be just perfect and the fact that you went and kissed her on the cheek ruined that fantasy."

"...But why? I was just showing everyone what a kiss was since you were all saying I kissed her when I gave her some of my pancakes." Jupiter had a slightly frustrated look on her face and Vert bit her lip as a thought came to her.

"Jupiter, dear, you said that you live with your sister, yes?" Jupiter nodded and Vert smiled at her softly. "Don't you two tease each other?"

"...Sis doesn't even smile." Jupiter answered Vert, who stared at her in shock. "She's always serious and not always friendly, but she always praises me when I do a good job. In fact, until Uni started getting all upset about the kiss, I found she was a lot easier to understand than sis is."

"Suddenly, that explains so much." Vert said to herself. "So when we said you had indirectly given her a kiss, you were taking what we said literally." Jupiter looked confused, but nodded and Vert smiled softly, now she knew what was going on. "Very well. You see, Jupiter, you're probably the first person that Uni has met that she could call a friend. I doubt that she was looking for any sort of romance right now, but when you kissed her, she might have thought you had romantic feelings for her and she didn't know what to think about that and her feelings got jumbled up and confused, which led her to being upset at you, especially since, to her, when you said that it didn't mean anything, she might have thought that you were toying with her feelings and that she meant nothing to you."

Jupiter's eyes widened as she understood what Vert was saying. "But... But that's not true! I like Uni! She's cool, strong and lots of fun. I wasn't trying to hurt her feelings or anything and..." She trailed off as Vert held up a hand and had a gentle smile on her face.

"I know, dear." Vert stood up, but stopped Jupiter when she tried to stand up. "Just stay here for now and think about it for awhile, okay?" Jupiter nodded and Vert left the room, leaving the confused girl alone.

"I didn't mean to hurt Uni, I didn't..." Jupiter's eyes were starting to tear up. "I just thought I was showing what a kiss was..."

(-)

Vert smiled softly as she walked into the room where she had left the CPU Candidates and saw Uni playing a FPS. Mentally she sighed as it was a re-enactment of one of the earliest conflicts in the Console Wars. 'Come to think of it, the Console Wars weren't always violent. When did we start trying to kill each other for real?' Vert had long suspected that like what happened when they killed Purple Heart that the four CPUs had been manipulated into fighting each other for real somewhere along the way. Sadly it was so long ago that Vert couldn't recall all the details.

"Wow, Miss Uni!" Rom cheered as Uni cleared the mission with multiple head-shot kills. "That was cool."

"Indeed," Vert smiled as the three girls screamed, jumped and spun around to face her. "There's no need to be so high strung. It's not like I was taking secret picture of you three when you got out of the shower or something." She giggled at the annoyed looks they gave her. "Anyway, Uni, can we talk in private?"

Uni nodded and followed after Vert, leaving the twins alone.

"So..." Rom looked at Ram. "What do you want to do?"

Ram pulled out a hand-held device. "What to play Pocketed Monstrosities against each other?"

Rom pulled out a similar device and smiled. "Sure!"

(-)

After walking into her personal game room, Vert turned to Uni, who closed the door behind her. "I spent some time talking to Jupiter," she waited for Uni to huff and cross her arms while looking away in annoyance, "and discovered some interesting information."

Seeing as Uni wasn't saying anything, Vert took that as a sign to continue speaking. "Let's get this out of the way, when Jupiter gave you that kiss this morning," she was amused as Uni's face flushed, "she didn't mean anything by it," Uni twitched in anger and Vert continued before Uni could say anything, "when I say that, Uni, I don't mean that she was trying to play with your feelings, in fact, when I told her that her actions might seem that way to you, she got really upset at the thought of playing with your feelings." Uni slowly lowered her arms over her small chest and looked at Vert, confusion on her face. "You see, Uni, Jupiter has a very strict sister as her role model, one who didn't even partake in teasing as she grew up. So when you two were being teased about what happened this morning, she took it literally and showed us what a kiss was."

"But that doesn't make sense..." Uni trailed off and Vert could have sworn she was seeing literal question marks surrounding the poor girl's head at that moment.

"I imagine, it confused me when she said that you were easy to understand compared to her sister."

Uni gave her a dumbfounded look, her arms hanging loosely in front of her. "...That's a new one." Rom and Ram had complained several times that she was hard to understand and Uni had worked hard to make it easier for them to understand her.

"Indeed." Vert nodded, mentally pleased that Uni didn't seem as upset as she was. "In fact, I do think that Jupiter doesn't have many friends herself."

"...Someone as friendly as her?" Uni was confused, she couldn't believe it. "I think she could make friends with baddies seeking to destroy the world if she wanted to."

Vert was about to say something when a thought came to her and she laughed softly. "You know, it's funny in a sad way, what you just said, it reminded me of how Purple Heart, despite all the centuries we fought against each other and tried to kill each other, she wanted all of us to be friends before she died." Uni frowned in confusion and Vert sighed. "Let me ask you something, did Noire tell you what Purple Heart's final request was?" Uni shook her head and Vert gave her a gentle smile. "It was to be friends with each other and her younger sister."

"Lilac Heart..." Uni whispered softly. "Oh wait! Yeah, Noire mentioned something about that, but I forgot."

"It's okay." Vert nodded in understanding. "I'm just reminded of Purple Heart for some reason."

"What was she like?" Uni asked, causing Vert to look at her in confusion. "I'm curious, none of you talk about her much."

Vert closed her eyes and put her hand to her chin. "If I had to say... She was probably the most pure of the four of us. In combat none of us could beat her by ourselves, though it was never as though she was extremely far ahead of us. She had an ego when she fought, but she always kept a clear head and could take control of a situation when needed. The mere fact that she tried to befriend us after so many years of fighting and how she hated the Console Wars speaks volumes about her personality." Vert shook her head. "I apologize if you were hoping for something more, but I only really knew her as Purple Heart and through our fighting. I know she had a human form, but I rarely saw her in that form."

"You sound like you respected her." Uni said softly, getting a nod from Vert.

"Indeed." Vert sighed softly. "Even though we were enemies, she was someone that you couldn't help but respect. I wish that we had gotten a chance to really know her."

"Vert..." Uni couldn't stand seeing her unofficial big sister like this and hugged her. "I'm sorry." She mumbled and pressed her face into Vert's breasts, knowing that the busty CPU liked it when the people she hugged did that.

Vert smiled and gently rubbed Uni's head. "You did nothing wrong." In fact, Vert would say that the hug was making her feel better. After a moment, she patted Uni's back. "Now how about you go find Jupiter and talk to her?" She felt Uni stiffen and bury her head into Vert's breasts. "While I have no problem if you wish to stay in my bosom, Uni, you need to talk to Jupiter." She pulled Uni away from her. "Go on, I'm sure that she holds no ill will to you."

"...Okay." Uni said, her voice soft and meek.

Walking out with Uni, Vert pointed her to the room that Jupiter was in. She would have gone herself, but she saw Cave walking towards her. "Excuse me." She walked towards Cave and got in step with her as the two walked down the hallway and out of sight.

Uni sighed and walked to the room that Vert had indicated. As she got inside, she saw Jupiter sitting on a chair and looking sad. "Um, Jupiter..." The next thing she knew, Jupiter was missing from her chair and Uni found herself on her back as she was dive-tackled by a crying purple torpedo.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't know what I was doing! Please forgive me!"

Uni's face was as red as her eyes. "ACK! That's what I should say!"

Jupiter sniffled and pulled away to look at Uni. "You're not mad?"

"Well, I can't say that I'm happy about the kiss, but..." Uni sighed as she saw Jupiter tear up. "No, I'm not mad, Vert talked to me." She blushed when Jupiter suddenly smiled brightly. It felt like the whole room was suddenly lit up.

"Yay! Thanks, Uni! You're the best!" Jupiter hugged Uni and got off of her before helping her up. "And sorry for the kiss."

"GUH!" Uni twitched. "Just forget about it, okay? It's not like you meant anything by it, right?"

Jupiter nodded. "Yeah, so... Are we still friends?" She asked, a hopeful look in her eyes.

"Yeah." Uni gave her a small smile. "And, Jupiter..." Jupiter blinked at her in confusion. "I'm sorry for getting mad at you."

Jupiter just smiled at her. "It's okay."

(-)

Sitting in the conference room, Vert looked at Cave, who had a serious expression on her face, not that Cave had much of any other expressions on her face. "Report."

"Initial inquiries show that there is no change among the citizens in regards to their CPU. However," Cave took a deep breath and slowly let it out as she continued, "there is a growing sense of unrest and unease among the populace."

"I'll schedule a 5pb concert to be held in front of the Basilicom tomorrow and have it live-streamed across Gamindustri." Vert said, getting a nod from Cave. "It's the least I can do for the citizens. What else?"

"Initial reports on the damage to the city is massive. Excluding the park, the damage estimates are coming in at over twenty-four million credits."

Vert grimaced, that was going to put a serious cramp on the national budget, and there were some games that were coming out that she was looking forward to playing too. 'Guess I'll have to wait until either a sale or a port of those games before I can play them.' It was a small price to pay, in her opinion, if it meant that her citizens could get back to their normal lives. "And the park?"

"The damage to the park, as well as the immediate surrounding areas is estimated to be between six and ten times the rest of the damage to the city combined."

"So in total it's upwards of 250 million total credits?"

"At least." Cave nodded at that, causing Vert to sigh in dismay. "Lady Vert, I know that..."

"Just stop, we'll figure something out." Vert gave her a smile. "I'll have to do some number crunching and calculate a new national budget for some time."

Cave suddenly went to one knee and bowed her head. "Forgive me, Lady Vert. Had I been faster, I could have figured out what was going on, instead our great nation suffered tremendous damage."

"Cave," Vert got out of her chair and knelt down next to her operative. "Please, this was sudden, you couldn't stop it."

"You're too kind." Cave looked up and to her shock, she saw Vert was looking at her sadly. "Lady Vert?"

"I'm not quite as kind as you think." Vert said softly as she stood up. "Gather the damage reports and have them forwarded to my office so I can figure out the best course of action." Cave nodded and stood up as well, before leaving the room. Sighing, Vert pulled out her cell phone and dialed a number.

_"Hello? Lady Vert? Are you okay?"_

Vert smiled as she heard the concern in the other person's voice. "I'm fine, 5pb, thank you for asking. I assume you're okay as well?"

_"Yes, I'm fine. Cave got me and many others to safety when the monsters showed up."_

"I'm glad. Would you be willing to host your concert tomorrow at the Basilicom? We'll have it open, free of charge to the public and even live stream it over the internet. Don't worry, I'll make sure that you get paid for this."

_"No! Lady Vert, I couldn't possibly ask for money for this. If I can help Leanbox, then I'll give my talents for free."_

Vert smiled and wiped a tear from her eyes. "You are truly kind, Lyrica. Tomorrow at the same time as your concert tonight was going to be, okay?"

_"Of course. I'll see you then."_ With that, 5pb hung up.

A moment later, a beeping sound was heard and Vert walked over to the front of the conference table and sat in front of her computer console and pressed the button, revealing Noire and Blanc's faces. "I was wondering why you didn't call me sooner."

"I figured you were dealing with the fallout of what happened." Noire said, getting a nod from Vert. "What happened?"

Vert sighed softly and leaned back in her chair. "A monster horde suddenly appeared in the city, while it was dealt with, the city dealt with plenty of damage. Most of which was caused by Rom and Ram, I admit."

"What did they do?" Blanc asked, a tired look on her face, as if she had expected this.

"Apparently they developed the ability to magic up hydrogen bombs." Vert answered, causing both Blanc and Noire's eyes to go blank and white. "The damage to the city is estimated to be at least 250 million credits."

"I'll make sure to reimburse you." Blanc answered while making a mental note to punish those two brats for doing that.

"I'll send Lastation engineers to Leanbox to help with the reconstruction." Noire said, getting a smile from Vert.

"Thank you both. I have something that I think you might both enjoy." Vert grabbed her phone and fiddled with it for a moment before sending them the video of Uni and Jupiter dancing.

"How cute." Blanc smiled at the video while Noire's face turned red.

"Vert! That dance is entirely inappropriate!"

Vert rolled her eyes at her friend. "Noire, calm down, those two were focused on the dance and nothing else. Anyway," she put her phone away, "I must make announcements to Leanbox."

"Of course." Both of the CPUs nodded as they hung up.

(-)

In Lowee...

Blanc sighed after hanging up. "I swear, I don't..."

"Blanny!" A mature voice caused Blanc's eyes to go blank and white. Turning, she saw a busty woman with long brown hair who was wearing a blue vest that did nothing to hide her generous bust and tone abs, brown leggings that covered her long legs, blue boots that went her calves and a barrette walk in. "It's been months since I last saw you in private and you don't even come to greet me when I show up?"

"C-Sha..." Blanc let out a sigh, partially of resignation and partially of annoyance. "It's good to see you."

"Blanny, you look tired." C-Sha gave Blanc a concerned look and walked over to her. "Have you been sleeping properly?"

"I'm just tired, so much stress is piling up and..." The next thing Blanc knew, she was being lifted up and out of her chair. "Hey! Put me down, dammit!" She struggled as C-Sha held her under her armpits. "Come on, this is embarrassing!"

C-Sha smiled at her. "Calm down, Blanny, I can't help you if you're in that chair. Here." She put Blanc on a more normal chair and got behind the CPU. "Take the coat off and I'll rub your shoulders."

Blanc grumbled, but slid her coat down her shoulders. "F, fine, just hurry up, I don't like being manhandled by you like that."

C-Sha giggled as she ran her fingers over Blanc's shoulders, causing the CPU to hiss softly. "You know you love it when I manhandle you."

Blanc's face was red. "That and this are two entirely different things!" She groaned as C-Sha found a particularly difficult knot right next to her shoulder blades. "How did you, ngh, get so good?"

"I learned from a gay massage therapist." C-Sha answered, "now just relax."

Blanc nodded and closed her eyes, groaning as C-Sha worked the stiffness out of her shoulders.

"So, Blanny, it's been months since I last had the chance to see you in private." C-Sha began. "And you seem stressed, want to talk about what's going on?"

"You saw me the other day." Blanc protested lightly.

"Yeah, but like you said that and this are two entirely different things. Seeing you when a small crisis is happening and we need to deal with stuff then is different from having some personal time between us, don't you agree?" C-Sha asked as she continued her massage.

Letting out a low moan, Blanc began to talk, going over the things that C-Sha had missed while she was gone.

C-Sha nodded as she listened in. 'Sheesh, poor Blanny, I wish I could be around more often for her.' Their jobs kept them apart for so long that C-Sha was lucky if she saw Blanc more than three times a year. "Hey, Blanny... Would it be okay if I became a part of the Basilicom staff?"

Blanc blinked out of her daze and turned to look at C-Sha. "...Why? You said you hated the thought of being stuck in the Basilicom."

"I hate being away from you more though." C-Sha answered, causing Blanc to blush.

Blanc looked away. "Well... If you really want to, I can make it happen."

"Thanks, Blanny." C-Sha smiled at her. "It'll be nice to be with my best partner again."

Blanc was silent, but a tingling sensation covered her body. It was nice having someone who cared about her like C-Sha did. After all, finding someone like that was really hard, and Blanc had actually resisted C-Sha at first, but she had given up when it became obvious C-Sha wasn't going to give up being close to her. 'Probably the only time I can say that giving up was better for me.'

* * *

So in the original version of the story, THIS was where C-Sha was supposed to first show up. My beta reader said it kind of came out of nowhere, so I went back and added her into previous chapters. She became an ascended extra!

I told you that Jupiter wasn't trying to lewd Uni. Poor girl takes things too literally.

Anyway, as for the dance that Jupiter and Uni were doing? ...If you ever saw the anime Keijo, it was inspired by that. So, yes, very lewd. XD

* * *

"Welcome to Nepstation, home of the Nepstation, I'm your host 5pb and this is..."

"Uni. Hi everyone. Hey, 5pb, don't you usually hang out with Cave?"

"Cave's busy looking for what happened in Leanbox. Anyway, I get to show up in the next chapter! ...I think. I know I do soon."

"The author's notes are very confusing."

"I know! The author won't even tell us what happens in the near future."

"At least you make an appearance."

"True. Hey, why do you seem upset?"

"Because we're almost done in Leanbox, that means it's time to go home and I have to work and..."

"Oh, you want to hang out with Jupiter some more, huh?"

"Don't you hang out with Cave when you're not working?"

"Point! Anyway, see you all next chapter! This is 5pb..."

"And Uni, signing off. Hey! Since we did most of the main cast by now, you think we're going to start going in loops?"


	19. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

* * *

"So there's going to be a concert tonight?" Jupiter asked, getting a nod from Vert as everyone ate at table the next morning. The rest of yesterday had passed mostly uneventfully, which everyone was thankful for.

"Indeed." Vert fought off the urge to yawn tiredly. She could go a week without sleep if she had to, but yesterday was just tiring regardless. "There was going to be a concert yesterday, but due to what happened it was rescheduled for today and it will be free. To keep the ticket buyers from being upset, I've already set up a reimbursement forum for those who purchased a ticket so they don't feel like they wasted their money. On top of that, this will be live-streamed across Gamindustri."

"That's cool." Uni smiled as she ate a bite of the waffle in front of her. After swallowing, she continued to speak. "5pb's perfect for countering those Anti-CPU jerks."

"Indeed." Vert nodded at her and looked at IF and Compa. "Iffy, why don't you take the day off?" IF looked at her in shock. "You've been working really hard lately, and I feel like you've been cooped up in the Basilicom too much lately. Why don't you and Compa go for a walk with the girls and just have fun today?"

IF smiled but sighed. "That's kind of you, but last night, um..."

"Iffy woke up screaming because she accidentally rolled over and her knee hit the guard rail of her bed." Compa sighed softly.

"Oh dear." Vert looked at IF with worry. The brown haired girl was looking miserable. "So you can't..." IF shook her head. "And you don't want to go out on the wheelchair, huh?"

"It's embarrassing." IF pouted. "I'm not even twenty-five and I have to use a wheelchair? How pathetic!"

"Iffy..." Compa squeezed her friend and patient's shoulder. "I'd offer to sleep in the same bed as you so that I can be there faster, but I snore and you toss and turn and I'd be worried that I'd be the reason you'd hurt your knee even worse than it already is hurting."

"I don't know how much faster you can be." IF sighed. "You're my full time nurse and you help me with everything all day anyway." And IF meant it too, Compa had seen everything with her on more than one occasion and it was hard for either of them to be embarrassed by it at this point. "Your room is right next to mine." Which was mostly for privacy purposes, "I just wish I could give you a day off."

"No way!" Compa shook her head. "But I still think Iffy should have gotten her leg replaced."

"Again, I don't trust artificial legs." IF shot back. "I might as well just be a one-legged woman if I have to have this leg removed then."

"But artificial legs are much more durable than they were even five years ago." Compa pointed out. "We even have cool metal ones that can be connected to your nervous system so that you don't have to worry about losing your sense of touch."

"Again, no!" IF shot back, a determined look on her face. "Besides, if I get a metal leg I'll never be able to go on boats or planes because I'll never get through security."

"This sounds like an old argument." Jupiter whispered to Uni, who nodded at her.

"Yeah, they've had this argument every time I've seen them. IF used to be able to walk with a cane even though she had a limp, now she can't walk without crutches and she's even losing the ability to do that."

"Oh." Jupiter nodded and wished that Histoire didn't take three of anything to do anything. Generally three hours or three days, but it was always in a group of three. She was really reliable and dependable, but it took her so long.

Then again, Jupiter supposed it only made sense, since she had all the information of Gamindustri in her and Histoire had said that while she was a very powerful tome, she had restrictions put into place to limit her abilities by her creator.

'Come on, Histoire, can't you go a little faster for once in your life? IF needs access to our regen tanks.' Jupiter thought to herself before letting out a yelp as her phone rang. "Sorry!" She blushed and pulled out her phone to see who was calling her. 'What a coincidence.' She thought to herself as she saw who it was. "Sorry, I need to take this." She stood up and ran out of the room.

In the hallway, she answered the phone. "Hello."

_"Jupiter, this is Histoire, I wanted you to know that I just finished the paperwork for the travel papers for those two you asked me to and got everything in order. However, it will take some time to get to Leanbox, unless it's an order from your sister, mail out of the country takes several days. It will probably take a week."_

"...Histoire, can't you order it to go faster? Aren't you officially the second in charge in Planeptune?"

Histoire sighed over the phone. _"Yes, I can do that, I already feel guilty enough. Jupiter, are you trying to kill me with guilt?"_

"No, but IF needs help." Jupiter said softly.

_"...Alright, I'll put an express order on this, it'll still take a couple of days to get there, however. Only your sister can get mail delivered in under a day."_

"Thank you." Jupiter smiled softly.

_"I do have one question. What happened yesterday?"_

Jupiter sweat-dropped. "Ah, that is... That was all my fault."

_"...You caused an explosion that could be seen from everywhere in Gamindustri at the same time? I'm pretty sure that's not in your skill set."_

"It's not that. It was my plan and..." Jupiter sighed and slumped. "If I had known they would do that, but it's my fault, so..."

_"...Is anyone hurt?"_

"Thankfully no, but..."

_"But..?"_ Histoire pressed.

"There's a lot of damage."

Histoire sighed heavily. _"Are you okay?"_

"Yes, and no one else died."

_"Then don't worry about it."_ Histoire said over the phone. _"Anyway, I'll have the documents sent out today, but it will take a couple of days to get to Leanbox."_

"Thank you. How's sis?"

_"Nepgear isn't too bad, but do give her a call later, okay?"_

Jupiter smiled and nodded. "Of course." She hung up after Histoire told her goodbye and walked back in to the dining room. "Sorry about that."

"It's okay." Vert smiled at her. "Anyway, please, sit down before your waffles go bad."

"ACK!" Jupiter's eyes went white and blank and she quickly sat down to do that. After all, she was able to use syrup on these! As much as she liked sour cream and brown sugar, actual syrup was a treat to be enjoyed!

"Anyway, IF," Vert looked at the brown-haired girl. "I insist that you get out of the Basilicom today. If you need to be wheeled out, then you need to be wheeled out. No one will think less of you for it."

IF sighed and nodded, "if Lady Vert says so..."

"Now dear, you don't need to take that defeatist tone." Vert smiled at her softly. "I'm simply concerned is all. I think some fresh air will do you some good. Besides, wouldn't you rather spend time with Uni, Rom, Ram, and Jupiter than behind that stuffy desk?"

"I guess I can't argue against that logic." IF gave her a wane smile. "Alright, I'll take today off."

"So when is that concert anyway?" Jupiter asked out of curiosity. She was curious about it. Planeptune never had concerts as far as she knew.

"It will be later in the evening." Vert smiled at her. "Just before sunset."

"That's cool." Uni smiled before sighing. "Sorry, Vert, but I think that I'm going to have to go home tomorrow." Vert nodded, understanding and she could see how Rom and Ram both had disappointed looks on their faces as well, no doubt from the realization that they had to head home as well.

"I understand. How about tomorrow we all take a trip to Lastation and meet up with Blanc and Noire there?" Vert smiled at the trio of girls. "Well, I don't think Jupiter would want to be left alone here, don't you think?"

Jupiter sweat-dropped, but nodded. 'It's not even been a week, but I really do miss sis.' Plus she could talk to her sister about what she had learned while she had been out. 'I'll have to be careful, sis will freak out if she finds out that I met the CPUs in person.'

(-)

Vert smiled at the group as she saw them to the street. IF looked embarrassed at the fact she was being pushed by Compa, Rom and Ram were chatting as they discussed whatever caught their eye while Uni added her own input. Jupiter was following after them and looking around aimlessly.

As they walked away, Vert found her field of vision narrowing as Jupiter turned back to look at her. And for a moment she swore she saw a white hoodie on the girl with her hair slightly longer, a tint of purple that was lighter than Jupiter's hair, two D-clips in her hair and a carefree smile on her face before it was gone and was replaced by Jupiter, who was just looking at nothing in particular. "What was that? Who was that?" Vert asked and shook her head before walking back into the Basilicom. For some reason, seeing that hoodie made her chest ache, but she couldn't explain why. Rubbing the bridge of her nose, Vert wondered just how tired she was before she went into her room, closed the door and laid down on her bed.

It took Vert all of four seconds to fall asleep.

(-)

IF had to admit, despite being embarrassed at being seen in public in a wheelchair, at least no one was teasing her about it. Those who knew her also knew about her injury and wouldn't belittle her over it. Those that didn't know her personally knew her as one of the Basilicom staff members, so they were at least respectful to her. 'Still, it's just...' She sighed and looked at a woman about her age walking around and talking on her phone without any problems. 'What I wouldn't give to be able to do that.'

IF knew she couldn't tell Compa the real reason she didn't want her leg to be amputated, even if it would save her a lot of problems in the long run.

She was scared.

IF knew that the probability of something going horribly wrong during the procedure was next to zero. IF also knew that Compa would never let anything happen to her if she could help it.

But that didn't mean that IF didn't have nightmares of being on that operating table and something going wrong and she ended up in an even worse condition than she was now. 'If I told Compa that I was scared, she'd just berate me for being a wimp.' And IF knew that Compa would be right. Sure, Compa would never use such words, but the underlying intent would still be there.

As they walked through the city, Jupiter listened to Uni, Rom and Ram talk about some of their favorite stores and some of their favorite places, but it was hard for her to focus on that when she saw the cleanup crews working on fixing the damage from what happened. 'Such a waste,' she couldn't help but feel bad for everyone who had their lives ruined by what happened. Not just from Rom and Ram's attack, but from the monsters and everything else. 'This isn't right. Monsters shouldn't be able to get into a city where the CPU lives.'

The fact that they had shown up, even if it had been because of a spawning monster, was terrifying.

The implications even more so. Nepgear had told her that if a CPU's shares were too low that even if they were alive, their divine protection would no longer work to save their citizens and monsters could run free. 'Sis never really explained why Planeptune has no problems.'

While Jupiter was proud of the fact that Planeptune had no worries about strong monsters for the most part, part of her was worried that was because her sister was doing something bad to make it so. 'I mean, she's working with someone who spies on everyone.' She still had that monster containment disk and even though Anny had said to destroy it, she was curious as to what her sister would say about it.

All of this was starting to really wear her out. Finding out the CPUs had changed since the war was one thing, but finding out that her sister was potentially causing problems? 'Please, please sis, please don't be, huh?' She blinked in confusion as she saw someone slip into an alleyway not far from where they were.

She wouldn't have even paid attention to the person if not for a couple of things. The first was that the person was someone she had seen when the monsters had attacked and she was wondering if that person was okay. And the second reason was because she was looking around like she was trying to see if anyone was looking at her.

Before Jupiter knew what she was doing, her feet were moving as she went after the person in question. As she entered the alleyway, she noticed that it was fairly wide, large enough that several people could get through, or one really obese person, without any problems. It was also pretty clean, which surprised her, but as she walked down the alleyway, she found that it split. Sighing, she was about to turn around and leave when she heard voices coming from her right.

"...make fun of me for getting beaten by a CPU follower!"

'Is that that little girl?' Jupiter couldn't remember her name, but she walked in the direction of the voice and found that the alley ended up in some sort of courtyard with lots of apartment buildings surrounding it and few alleys leading to it from other sides. Looking into the courtyard, she saw the blonde girl, her two ninja-dressed cronies, the girl that she had rescued during the monster attack and a large robot guy that she had never seen before.

"Hey, come on!" The robot yelled loudly. "We're all buddies here!" It looked at the girl in the mouse hoodie. "I mean, Linda and I were given those monster containment disks after all! I would have loved to have been here, but I was at the Lowee World Fair!"

Jupiter narrowed her eyes. 'So they're the ones who did it.'

"Dammit, Copypaste!" Linda yelled at him. "Don't be so loud! What if someone heard you!"

"Says the person yelling at the top of her lungs." Abnes deadpanned. "Still, the plan mostly worked, and then we just use what happened to help Miss R out."

Linda scoffed at Abnes. "I don't get why she won't contact us directly, it's like she treats us as nothing more than mere underlings or something."

"GWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Copypaste laughed. "Well, compared to her, I guess we are!"

"Speak for yourselves." Abnes huffed. "Unlike you two, *I* am a respected Neptuber with millions of subscribers!"

"Five people over one million." Linda shot back.

"It still counts!" Abnes retorted.

"HEY!" The arguing group turned and saw Jupiter walking towards them, a sword in each hand as the glared at them. "I heard everything! You guys are the reason the monsters got loose?!" She glared at Abnes. "I wish I hit you harder now!"

Abnes smirked at Jupiter. "I don't think you've noticed, but you're outnumbered here! Linda might be a useless underling."

"HEY!" Said underling yelled in anger.

"But she's a pretty good fighter." Abnes ignored her. "Copypaste might be a dumb meathead of a robot, but he knows how to fight."

"D'AWWW! If I had blood I'd be blushing right now! Thanks, buddy!" Copypaste sounded so happy when he heard Abnes's comments that everyone sweat-dropped.

"Ahem!" Abnes continued. "Ess and Jay Doublue are twin ninja brothers who are stronger than the average adventurer. And there's me! The person who can ruin your reputation with ease!" She grinned at Jupiter. "I'm glad we get to pay you back for what you did to me!"

"What's this we stuff?" Linda muttered, but grinned as she pulled out a steel pipe. "Oh well, I don't mind roughing up a little girl."

"Sorry!" Copypaste cried out. "But if Miss Abnes says I gotta beat you up, I'll beat you up! Don't take it personally!"

Ess and Jay looked at each other, nodded and put down their camera equipment before pulling out swords.

Jupiter sweat-dropped heavily. "If this was a game, I'm either about to get a game over or some scripted event will happen."

"The second one." A soft voice said from behind her. Jupiter spun and watched as a very pretty white haired young woman with red eyes walked up beside her. In her hand was a blue sword, she was wearing black boots and leggings, a vest that only covered her chest, around her hips was a white half-cape with a red liner. "Interesting what happens when you randomly decide to see why two people walk into the same alleyway."

"Who are you?" Abnes asked as the woman gave her a bored look.

"I suppose before I tear you a new one you can know my name. It's S-Sha."

"You're still outnumbered four to two." Abnes protested.

"Oh really?" A male voice spoke up and Abnes and Linda spun around to see something neither of them expected to see.

Jupiter's eyes went white and blank as she saw who had spoken up. "Holy macaroni! A very handsome and muscular dogoo wearing nothing but a speedo!"

"Indeed, I am Dogoo Man!" The muscular dogoo flexed his muscles. "See how my pectorals quiver in anger over hearing that you, Abnes, are part of a group responsible for causing such harm to our beloved city."

S-Sha narrowed her eyes. "I normally don't care what people do, but your antics not only destroyed part of the city that I live in, those monsters destroyed mine and E-Sha's home. I am most..." She took a few steps forward, "displeased."

"You're still outnumbered four to three!" Abnes protested.

"Numbers mean nothing to my pectoral muscles!" Dogoo Man flexed. "In fact, allow me to show you just how little numbers matter!" Before anyone could react, Dogoo Man was near Copypaste and punching his torso with a haymaker so strong that a shock wave was sent through the air before Copypaste was launched into the sky. "S-Sha! Please deal with them!" Dogoo Man called out and jumped after Copypaste.

"GOOD PUNCH, BUDDY!" Copypaste was heard yelling in the distance.

"Holy macaroni!" Jupiter repeated, her eyes as wide as dinner plates. "How did a Dogoo get like that?!"

"Doing one hundred sit ups, one hundred push ups and running ten kilometers every day as a warm up." S-Sha responded as she walked towards the remaining three. "I do believe that he was your," she held up her free hand and caught the pipe when Linda rushed her and swung at her, "strongest ally, correct?"

Linda's eyes widened in shock. "H...How?"

"Just so you know, I train with Dogoo Man." S-Sha answered her as she looked at the sweating underling. Before Linda could do anything, S-Sha pulled down on the pipe, causing Linda to lunge forward before S-Sha threw her arm up, making Linda tilt backwards as S-Sha slashed downwards, cutting the pipe in half.

"Pardon me." Jupiter said as she jumped up behind S-Sha. Putting her hand on the short-haired woman's shoulder, she used that to propel her through the air at Ess, at least Jupiter thought it was Ess, in a diving kick that sent the man flying across the courtyard and into the far wall where he dropped his sword.

"ESS!" Abnes cried out in horror. "Jay! What are you doing?! Get in there!"

Jay swung his sword at Jupiter, only to find it blocked by a blue blade. Turning, he gulped at the look on S-Sha's face.

"I don't mind a good, strong man, but I don't like men who try to harm children." S-Sha said off-handedly. "Now, you can calm down and come quietly, or we can just do this the hard way." Behind her, Linda was trembling and trying to sneak away before S-Sha looked over her shoulder. "Don't run, you'll only die tired."

"Assault!" Abnes yelled as she pointed at them. "Yes! I'll sue you! I'll say you assaulted us! I'll..."

"Do nothing and come along quietly." A voice from above spoke up. Looking up, Abnes paled as she saw Uni, Rom and Ram hovering above her. "That robot pal of yours doesn't know how to shut up and he's rather loud. He admitted to everything."

"Uh huh. Dummy." Rom pointed out.

Ram grinned at Abnes. "Considering how mean you are, can we beat her up first?"

"I'm Abnes! You can't just GOOG!" Abnes finally stopped yelling as S-Sha got behind her and clocked her over the back of her head with the pommel of the hilt of her sword.

"She was annoying." S-Sha said as she looked up at the CPU Candidates. "Black and White Sisters, what brings you here?"

"We were looking for her." Uni pointed at Jupiter, who gulped at the annoyed look that Uni was giving her. "She wandered off and we got worried about her. Thank you for helping her."

"Not a problem, I just happened to be..."

"Now, now, S-Sha, you were worried." S-Sha said in a slightly different voice as her eyes changed from red to green. "I'm sorry, S-Sha's a bit stubborn. I'm E-Sha." She smiled at the confused looks that she was getting. "Don't worry about it. Anyway, S-Sha saw two people duck into the alley and got concerned something bad was going to happen, so she wanted to check it out. Good thing too, don't you agree?"

For some reason, Jupiter could have sworn she saw an option of "yes" and "no" with an arrow pointed at "yes" and she couldn't change it. All she could do was nod at the question.

"Excellent." E-Sha smiled. "I have to go now, bye bye cuties!" Her green eyes turned to red and the person sighed heavily.

"E-Sha, did you have to do that?"

"Um," Jupiter spoke up, "what..."

"To make it simple, think of E-Sha as my wife." S-Sha said, getting a nod from Jupiter, who understood that concept easily enough. She yawned as Dogoo Man walked back into the courtyard. "I'll be going now, stay out of trouble." She made her sword disappear and waved goodbye.

"She was pretty cool." Jupiter said before gulping at the annoyed look that Uni was giving her. "Um, before you get too mad, I was just seeing someone who I saved during the monster invasion and I wanted to see how she was and..." Jupiter looked at where Linda was...

...Or rather had been. "Hey! She's gone!"

There was a high pitched scream and Jupiter spun around to see Linda flying back out of the alleyway with S-Sha and Dogoo Man following after her. Linda's clothes were in tatters and there were shallow cuts all over her body.

"I told you not to run." S-Sha said softly. "Now I'm annoyed."

"We'll take it from here." Uni said to S-Sha. "No need to commit murder."

S-Sha sighed and nodded. "But if she gets away from you again and I find her, I won't stop next time."

Linda trembled and sweated heavily. "H...Hey! She just admitted to wanting to commit murder! Isn't that against the law?"

"But didn't you bring a monster containment disk into Leanbox and unleash a bunch of monsters?" S-Sha asked, getting a gulp from Linda. "I don't think there's a jury in Leanbox that will convict me if that's the case." Her blue blade formed in her hands again. "Perhaps I should see if that's the case, hmm?"

Linda trembled and continued to sweat until her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she passed out, foaming at the mouth.

"Darn, I was hoping she'd wet herself too... Oh, there she goes." S-Sha had a small smirk on her face as she put her sword away. "I better get back to my temporary housing unit." She waved the candidates off.

"So cool." Rom, Ram, Uni and Jupiter all muttered at the same time.

(-)

It was a few minutes later when Cave showed up with a few people and put Ess, Jay, Abnes and Linda in the back of an armored transport vehicle. "Man, I had hoped that they had forgotten about us." Ess complained to Jay.

"Maybe we should have snuck out when no one was looking." Jay suggested.

"Thank you for helping us find out how the monsters got into Leanbox." Cave nodded at Uni, who shook her head.

"No, it was, um, S-Sha, or is it E-Sha..?" Uni was a little confused as Cave nodded.

"Ah, her. She's a former star and had some big roles in the past, but during the filming of a tragic movie, things went wrong and she nearly died." Cave had a small smirk come to her face at the shocked looks from the four girls. "Well, that's what happened. As for why she's like the way she is now, that's her story to tell, not mine."

"...Wait, that means that you..." Uni began.

"When it comes to information and security of Leanbox, there is very little I do not have access to." Cave answered her. "S-Sha is a special case, but she does care about Leanbox and is a strong person. The last I heard, she was out of town on vacation. Apparently not, huh?" Cave shrugged. "Anyway, if that's all, we'll take these four and have them questioned. I do wish that Dogoo Man had not trashed the robot so completely, it would have been nice to question it. But maybe we can pull records from its memory if that wasn't too badly damaged." Nodding, she turned and walked off, her hips swaying as she waved her goodbyes.

"So..." Uni looked at Jupiter. "Why did you wander off?" She didn't even let Jupiter answer before she suddenly hugged the girl. "Dang it, Jupiter! You could have gotten hurt! You could have told us that you saw something unusual at least."

"Yeah!" Ram frowned at Jupiter. "Don't go and disappear, we all got worried about you." Rom nodded and Jupiter gave them a weak grin.

"I'm sorry, really, I just thought that Miss Underling was a normal person and I was just seeing if she was okay."

Uni let go of the hug and stepped back, her face red. "Well, think before you do something like that again, okay?!"

Jupiter nodded and perked up as she heard IF's voice.

"So, you two lovebirds done flirting yet or should we wait longer?"

"We're not flirting!" Uni yelled, her arms extended down as she gave IF an annoyed and angry expression.

Jupiter scratched the back of her head. "...What's flirting?" She wondered why Uni suddenly fell over while Compa and IF both sweat-dropped heavily. "...What?"

"Nothing." Uni muttered as she got to her feet. Rom and Ram had similar confused looks on their face to Jupiter as they tried to understand what flirting was. "So, what should we do next?"

"We could go check out the Leanbox Museum." Compa pointed out helpfully, causing the candidates to all look at her in confusion.

"Museum?" Jupiter asked.

(-)

"Huh, this is a nice place." Jupiter said as she and the others walked around the Leanbox Museum. It was fairly spacious, carpeted floors with lots of displays all over the place. It was mostly about Leanbox's old systems and games, not the Jupiter minded, since there were plenty of places to play the old games.

Walking up to a big black brick of a system, Jupiter tilted her head and looked at the description. "The original Leanbox console, while it had plenty of issues that caused gamers problems, including a controller that was too large," she looked at the big controller that was next to the system, she sweat-dropped, "yep." Jupiter nodded and went back to reading, "the Duke, as the controller was called, was the basis of current Leanbox controllers. The earliest systems had some bad flaws that caused disks to get scratched even without the user doing anything wrong."

Jupiter winced as she heard that. "I'm surprised anyone would stay loyal if that was the case."

"Noire once told me the same thing." Uni said as she walked up behind Jupiter while Rom and Ram were further down laughing at some sort of mech game that Compa was playing that required an insanely weird controller set-up to even play. "But Noire said that apparently the system had so many good features that people were willing to over-look those problems and eventually they got fixed."

"Oh." Jupiter nodded, that made sense. "Hey, Uni..."

"Yeah?" The black haired girl looked at Jupiter curiously.

"I'm glad I met you." Jupiter said as she looked at the Lastation CPU Candidate with a gentle smile on her face. "I don't have any friends, so I'm happy I met you."

Uni blushed and looked away. "I-it's not like I care or anything, but you're welcome!"

Jupiter's smile slowly slid from her face. 'But will you remain my friend when you find out who I really am?' She just knew that somehow, someway Uni would find out that she was Planeptune's CPU Candidate, and in the worst way possible. "Hey, Uni, can I ask you something?"

"Huh?" Uni turned to look at her. "What?"

"You don't know much about Planeptune, right?" Uni shook her head. "But you met the CPU, right?"

"Lilac Heart?" Uni nodded softly. "Yeah, she wasn't really friendly, but she didn't seem too bad of a person. Why?"

"Just wondering, if she had a sister, what would you do?"

Uni blinked and thought about it. "...Nothing I suppose. I didn't have a good first impression of that CPU. If she did have a sister I can't imagine she'd be anything but similar to Lilac Heart." Uni nodded after a moment. "Yeah, I mean, if Lilac Heart had a sister, she'd probably be cold, distant and not worthy of being a friend."

"Oh." Jupiter kept her face blank, but internally she felt her heart breaking. "I see."

Uni looked at Jupiter in confusion. "Is something wrong?"

"No," Jupiter lied while shaking her head, "just surprised you wouldn't want to be someone's friend."

When Jupiter started to walk away, Uni mulled over the words for a moment. "Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!" She yelled and ran after Jupiter.

Jupiter turned and smiled at her, though the smile was a bit empty and didn't reach the short girl's eyes. "That you're too nice to not try and make friends with someone."

Uni felt her face flush at that. "Thanks."

(-)

In Planeptune...

Histoire floated into Nepgear's office and saw the CPU working hard, as usual, doing the seemingly never ending supply of paperwork. "Nepgear..."

"What is it, Histoire?" Nepgear asked without looking up.

"I was wondering, could you sign this?"

"Hmm?" Nepgear turned to look at Histoire and took the paper that the tiny fairy had in her hands. Looking it over, she paused and looked back at Histoire. "Why would you request this? What purpose do you have to have something transported to Leanbox by tomorrow morning?"

Histoire gave Nepgear a neutral look. "You know that I talk to the other CPUs from time to time, so the fact that I discovered that a guild member got hurt while protecting a nurse shouldn't surprise you."

"And why should I care about one of Vert's followers?" Nepgear asked as she narrowed her eyes at Histoire. "You went behind my back enough to get this written up. Knowing you, you probably have passports and travel papers all written up, am I right? Why not go all the way then?"

"Because from what I can tell, the adventurer's name is IF and she needs access to our regeneration tanks." Histoire didn't waver with her look. "And you're right," Histoire sighed, "I could have gone all the way to get this done behind your back, and, yes, I did have the passports and travel papers written up, but even I have limits to my authority, Nepgear."

"And you exceeded them." Nepgear shot back, causing Histoire to close her eyes and take a deep breath.

"Be that as it may, Nepgear, you harp on and on about how you hate the other CPUs, but do not wish to cause the civilians of Gamindustri any pain." Histoire opened her eyes and gave Nepgear a disappointed look. "Is that really true, or are you just using that as an excuse as to why you never acted on your hatred of the CPUs?"

Nepgear narrowed her eyes but said nothing as she stared at Histoire, who looked back, unwavering.

Internally Histoire was sweating slightly, she knew Nepgear wouldn't harm her, but the tension in the air was so thick that it was almost suffocating. "Well?" As much as she hated to do it, she knew that Nepgear would at least respond to her acting like this.

"You're right, perhaps I'm just a coward who can't act on my hatred and am just using those words as meaningless platitudes to justify why I don't go after the others." Nepgear said softly as she turned back to her desk. "Could you leave now? I have work to do."

Histoire sighed and nodded, floating out with a despondent look on her face. "Nepgear..." She stopped at the door and looked back at the CPU. When Nepgear turned to look at her, Histoire gave her a gentle look. "Whatever you choose to do, I'll stand by your decision."

Nepgear nodded and turned back to her desk.

(-)

"Lady Histoire!" B-Sha smiled as she saw the fairy enter the front offices of the Basilicom. That smile faded as she saw how sad Histoire looked. "Is something wrong with Lady Nepgear?"

"B-Sha," Histoire gave her a soft smile, even though it was a sad one, "no, nothing's wrong with Nepgear."

"...Did you screw up with Lady Nepgear again?" B-Sha asked, getting a small nod from the fairy. It was an open secret that Histoire and Nepgear weren't that close. "Lady Histoire, we know you mean well, but you need to..."

"I know," Histoire felt her shoulders slump. "Nepgear and I..." She shook her head. "As much as I keep trying to do the right thing for her, I keep finding myself screwing up. Even apologizing to her, I feel, is not enough anymore." She looked at B-Sha sadly. "I apologize, I should not dump my personal failings onto your shoulders."

B-Sha shook her head. "It's okay. There's not a person in Planeptune that wouldn't listen about problems that our Goddess faces."

"B-Sha... I..." Histoire felt herself trembling. "I feel as though Nepgear has been consumed by her grief and hatred for so long that there's nothing that can be done to help her."

B-Sha gave her a sad look. "If there was some way to help her, I know that everyone in Planeptune would do it in a heartbeat."

Histoire gave her a small smile. "Thank you for listening to me ramble. I guess..."

"Histoire..." Nepgear's voice was heard and both Histoire and B-Sha looked as Nepgear walked into the front office area, holding a manila envelope. "Here." She handed it to B-Sha. "I've authorized emergency transport for this." Histoire stared at her in shock and Nepgear gave her a blank stare. "What? I thought you wanted those travel papers to get to Leanbox by tomorrow morning."

"Nepgear..." Histoire gave her a smile. "I'm..." She trailed off as Nepgear held up a hand.

"No." Nepgear shook her head. "I'm not pleased with you right now, but you were right." She turned to leave. "If you'll excuse me, I will be out of the office for the rest of the day."

Histoire sighed and nodded as Nepgear left. "B-Sha, please make sure that the passport and travel papers I had prepared are placed inside before making sure that they get sent out."

"Of course, Lady Histoire." B-Sha gave her a thumbs up. "But, for what it's worth, I think you do a good job."

Histoire shook her head. "Thank you for such kind words, B-Sha, but I'm unworthy of them."

(-)

"Excuse me." Nepgear spoke up as she got to the guild.

"Ah!" The receptionist yelped. "My apologies. Is there something you need, Lady Nepgear?"

"I feel the urge to go and slay some monsters."

The receptionist shook her head. "I apologize, Lady Nepgear, but there's nothing available in regards to that, had you come earlier in the day there would have been, but they were taken by adventurers. There are item gathering quests, but..."

"That will do." Nepgear said as she took the book that was offered to her. There wasn't much there, but at least it would keep her busy for the rest of the day. "Thank you." She nodded and walked off with the book.

(-)

It was more than a few hours later as the sun began to set that Jupiter found herself and the others back at the Leanbox Basilicom. While they had traveled around the city and had some fun in the process, she had to admit, exploring the city had been kind of tiring.

"So that's 5pb?" Jupiter asked as she saw a blue haired girl with a music note tattoo on her stomach walk up on stage.

"Yes." Vert said as she, Rom, Ram, Jupiter, Uni, IF and Compa sat on the balcony over-looking the concert. Vert felt so refreshed after falling asleep earlier in the day, to the point that she only woke up with the girls had gotten back to the Basilicom when it was time to eat supper.

"Hello, Gamindustri!" 5pb called out as she winked while the crowd cheered happily. "I know this is unusual, but Lady Green Heart has graciously allowed me to use the Basilicom grounds for tonight's concert. I know there's been some trying times, so just allow me to sing and wash your exhaustion away, okay?" The crowd cheered again and 5pb pulled out a guitar. "Alright, let's get started with a request that I got today. I know it's unusual, but a fan sent me an email asking for me to play a song on the live-stream. Apparently my fan has a friend who lost someone she loved very deeply and misses very much. So this song goes out to not only my fan and their friend, but to everyone who's suffering from the loss of a loved one."

As the music started up, it was a soft melody that had people relaxing as they listened in.

(-)

In Planeptune...

Nepgear blinked as her phone started to ring. She was still out gathering items and wasn't near the Basilicom. "What's going on?" Looking at her phone, she sighed as she saw who it was from. "Hello, Anonydeath. What do you want?"

_"Honey, I want you to just listen to this. And by this, I mean put your phone on speaker."_

Nepgear blinked, confused but did so. "So what are..."

A song came through the phone's speakers, crystal clear and Nepgear paused as she listened in.

As she listened to the song, Nepgear found her mood being uplifted while tears fell from her eyes unconsciously and she slumped to her knees. "What is... What is this?" Her eyes widened and she looked to her side. "Nep..." She started and sighed softly. "Of course you wouldn't be there."

Even if it was for a moment, Nepgear could have sworn that Neptune was there, hugging her, telling Nepgear how much she loved her little sister and smiling at her. Even if it was just a figment of her imagination, Nepgear felt as though a crushing amount of negative emotions had been lifted from her shoulders at that moment.

The song lasted for a couple more minutes, though it felt much longer and Nepgear felt the corners of her mouth creeping upwards softly. "I need to apologize to Histoire when I get home." Turning off the speaker, she put the phone to her ear. "Anonydeath, are you there?"

_"Yes, honey?"_

"Thank you. I needed that."

_"I'm sure you did. Apparently that song was a special request from a fan who has a friend who lost someone that she loved very deeply. And, before you ask, I wasn't the one who made the request."_

Nepgear nodded and rubbed the tears out of her eyes. "I see. Again, thank you." She hung up and took a deep breath.

For some reason, even though the sun was starting to set, the day felt and looked clearer than it had in years.

* * *

I'll leave it up to your imagination who made the song request.

And all the Shas have made it into the story finally.

The game that Compa and the others were playing was Steel Battalion.

As for Abnes's flunkies, before anyone accuses me of injecting politics in here, let me just clarify something first. Abnes herself is a parody of the "won't someone PLEASE think of the children?!" Moral Authoritarian Busy-Bodies of the 1980s and 1990s that gave us the Satanic Panic and Jack Thompson. It's why she's all about trying to protect little girls in Rebirth 3 after all. Well, if she's based off of the original Moral Guardians, why not have her flunkies be named after the current generation Moral Authoritarian Busy-Bodies?

Also, if you were expecting that alley fight to be epic, well... Kind of hard when you have a Dogoo who punched Kurome silly, a woman who orders said Dogoo around and the only other truly capable fighter was Linda. XD

BTW, am I the only one who thinks that S-Sha (and E-Sha) is Lightning done right? XD

Nepstation time!

* * *

"Welcome to Nepstation! I'm your host Jupiter and this is..."

"...Uni. Wait, what? Why am I doing this twice in a row?!"

"Well, we're almost done with the Leanbox trip."

"I know, um, Jupiter, what did you want to tell me anyway?"

"AH! Well, that is... Oh! I just got a letter from the author!"

"Don't change the subject!"

"Looks like we're not leaving JUST yet! We got another Interlude coming up next!"

"We do?"

"Yep! Oh, and it's a doozy! Anyway, this is Jupiter..."

"And Uni, signing off."


	20. Interlude 4: Start of the War

Hyperdimension Neptunia belongs to Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Want to know how Neptune first met Blanc, Noire and Vert in the past?

Wonder no more!

* * *

Blanc grumbled as she finished her paperwork for the day. 'Been only two months since I became Lowee's CPU.' She didn't even get to know her predecessor, though there were some notes and books to read. Thankfully Blanc liked to read, it was fairly relaxing. She kind of wished that she had something to distract from the paperwork other than reading. The notes her predecessor left behind didn't paint the other nations in a very good light and frankly made Blanc not want to deal with the other CPUs at all.

"Ah! Lady Blanc!" One of the Basilicom members spoke up, causing Blanc to look at her. "There's someone who wishes to meet with you."

"Hmm?" Blanc stood up out of her tall chair and walked to the staff member. "Who is it?"

"Hiya!" A girl about Blanc's height wearing a white hoodie with purple trim, stockings that went from her feet up to her thighs, her small feet were covered by white and purple tennis shoes, her hair was short, spiky with long side burns that was light purple in color with eyes that matched her hair in color. "Oh wow!" She smiled brightly. "You're Lowee's CPU?!" The girl ran up to Blanc, a happy, giddy look on her face.

"Yes, my name is Blanc." Blanc nodded at her. "And you are?" She felt the urge to smile, this girl just seemed to incredibly positive and full of energy it was hard to be upset when she was around.

The girl smiled and grabbed Blanc's hands, shaking her hands. "Hiya! I'm Neptune, CPU of Planeptune, want to be friends?"

Blanc frowned and jerked her hands away from Neptune. "I see, so that means we're enemies."

"Awww!" Neptune pouted at Blanc. "But that's not fun! I don't want to be enemies, let's be friends!"

Blanc frowned at her. "No. Because for all I know, you're going to use your friendship with me to steal my shares or cause me harm." She was privately surprised that Neptune hadn't tried to kill her or anything yet.

"Boo!" Neptune pouted at Blanc. "I can't change your mind?" Blanc shook her head and Neptune sighed. "Okay, I guess... You know that Leanbox and Lastation will have new CPUs soon, right?"

Blanc nodded, though she didn't know that those two nations would have new CPUs soon and wasn't sure how this one knew that. "Are you planning on teaming up with them against me?" If this CPU was planning on teaming up with new CPUs to take her on, she'd have to kill this CPU right here and now.

"Nep what?" Neptune had a shocked look on her face. "No way! Why would I try to hurt someone who gave me this awesome hat!"

"...Awesome... hat?" Blanc stared, her pupils shrinking as she saw her hat on Neptune's head. 'She didn't...' Slowly, ever so slowly, Blanc moved her right hand up to her head and lowered it down. 'She did.' She thought to herself as her hand felt her hair and not her hat. "...Give me back my hat."

"Mwahahahaha!" Neptune had an amused look on her face as she turned and ran off. "The hat is now mine!"

There was a flash of light and Blanc transformed into her CPU form. "GET BACK HERE!" Her brown hair turned blue and grew long sideburns as her outfit turned white with blue trim and a large ax formed in her hands. Her face was shrouded in shadow and her eyes were glowing red due to her anger.

The Basilicom member quickly dove out of the way as White Heart rushed through the door, destroying it in the process.

"Nep woah!" Neptune jumped over a slash at her legs. "Oh cool! So that's your HDD!" Her eyes sparkled as she looked at White Heart. "Kind of, woah!" She ducked under a slash at her head. "Come on! Can't you take a joke?"

"Give me back my hat you damn little brat!" White Heart growled.

Neptune pouted as she dodged out of the way of another ax strike, which hit a small statue that was sent flying through a window and into an air balloon, causing it to deflate and crying children to be heard.

Looking through the destroyed window, both Neptune and White Heart gawked at the deflating balloon, their eyes white with black circles around them. "Wow! Good thing it wasn't in the air already." Neptune said, getting a nod from White Heart. "Just look at what you did! You made them cry!"

"ME?!" White Heart rounded on Neptune, who was running off, laughing. "You stole my hat!"

"And it's a great hat!" Neptune shot back as she ran down the hallway, followed by White Heart.

"GET BACK HERE, YOU LITTLE SHIT!"

Neptune threw the hat up and ducked under a wild swing from White Heart. Grabbing the hat out of mid air, she gave White Heart an amused look. "I don't want to hear "little" from a shrimp like you."

White Heart twitched, it was annoying that despite being a deity, she had to look up at everyone just to talk to them. "Shrimp?!" She looked Neptune up and down. "You're no bigger than I am!"

Neptune had an amused look on her face. "Well..." She was surrounded in light and White Heart stared in shock as Neptune grew in height, her hair got longer and was braided into two twin ponytails and she was covered in a black and purple processor unit. "I'd say I am." Her voice, which was childish and ditzy before, was now deeper and almost seductive.

"Wha, wha, what?!" White Heart gawked as she looked the transformed Neptune over.

"You can call me Purple Heart when I'm in this form." Purple Heart smiled at her.

"Boobs... Butt... Hips... WHAT?!" White Heart couldn't believe it! How could someone who was so small turn into such a freaking bombshell?!

Purple Heart smirked at her as an idea came to her mind. "I'd say that you can't really call me little anymore. After all..." She put her hands under her breasts and hefted them up before letting them go, watching in amusement as White Heart's eyes followed them bouncing. She then re-grabbed them and slid her hands down her sides. "I think I'm bigger than you in every place that matters."

White Heart didn't know why, but when she heard that, her anger snapped. "GRAAAAH!"

Purple Heart chuckled as she pulled out a large katana and started to parry, block and redirect White Heart's attacks. "Please, do entertain me."

(-)

Several minutes later...

The hallway, several offices, the entrance and her own bedroom were all destroyed, though White Heart wasn't sure how they got into her room over the course of their impromptu fight.

What made it worse was that Purple Heart was sitting on her stomach and looking pleased with herself. Both of them were disarmed, though White Heart found her arms somehow tied above her head and to the remains of her bed. The two were panting and White Heart felt her face flushing as she saw Purple Heart's breasts heaving in front of her. "So now what will you do?" White Heart hated to think about it, but she was completely at the mercy of Planeptune's CPU. She fought the urge to start crying, she was only a couple of months old! 'Am I going to die here?' It wasn't fair! She just wanted to be the best CPU for Lowee that she could be. Why did someone have to come to end her so fast. 'How can an end-game boss show up so damn early? Shouldn't I get to beat up an underling or something first?'

"You know, I meant what I said," Purple Heart, with her deep, almost seductive voice, said softly. "I really wanted to be friends. But since you don't want to..."

White Heart watched in fear as Purple Heart extended a finger and reached in to her face. 'Is she going to gouge out my eyes? Does she have some sort of death beam that can only be done at close range? Is she going to put some sort of obscene marking on my face?'

Purple Heart hovered her extended index finger above White Heart's face for a few moments before grinning and tapping White Heart on the nose. "Boop! You're it."

White Heart could only stare in pure disbelief. "...What? It?" She was so stupefied that she couldn't figure out what Purple Heart meant by that.

Purple Heart nodded and put the pilfered hat on her head. "By the way, Blanc, thanks for the hat." White Heart watched, still stunned as Purple Heart got off and went to the window, winking at her. "That was fun, let's play again. Though, you still need to tag me back." She laughed and flew out the window. The last thing that White Heart saw of the other CPU was the N on the part of the processor that covered Purple Heart's butt.

"...Wait, she... Tag? Play?" White Heart blinked a few more times as she tried to think of something other than how nice of a butt Purple Heart had. Suddenly, she realized something very important. "SHE STOLE MY HAT!"

(-)

Several months later, Lastation...

Noire, newly born CPU of Lastation, yawned as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. Her long, black hair, was a total mess and her red eyes showed nothing but exhaustion. "Urgh, I should get more sleep." Three hours was NOT enough sleep. Tiredly stripping out of her pajamas and down to her white panties, she looked around in confusion, her eyes still closed, as she heard a giggling noise somewhere. "What's that?" Rubbing her eyes as she heard the giggling noise some more, she frowned softly. "That sounds like that CPU that visited yesterday. What was her name again? Nepthupyutyuoonu or something?" She was surprised that an enemy CPU would just show up out of the blue and ask to be friends with her, but Noire really didn't have an interest in being friends with her.

Well, that wasn't true, Noire didn't mind the thought of being friends with the other CPU, but she was worried the other CPU was just going to trick her or something. 'Maybe I shouldn't have dismissed her outright?' Her predecessor had left several books and notes about how to be a good CPU and had mentioned that it was a bit of a lonely life as any human friends a CPU could make would grow old and die while the CPU stayed young and healthy and not to trust CPUs of other nations.

Being alone wasn't a thought that scared Noire, but at the same time she didn't enjoy the thought.

"BAH!" Noire grumbled and went to her closet and opened it up to put on a dress and face the day.

*SPLUT*

Noire blinked, several times, as her face, hair, shoulders and breasts were covered in what seemed to be something cold and sticky. Sticking her tongue out, she was able to confirm that it was banana in flavor. Putting her hand on her face, she wiped the stuff off of her face and saw that she had been hit in the face with a pie, as there was a pie pan on the floor in front of her. "What's this?" Noire knelt down as she saw a card taped to the bottom of the pie pan. "I got you, ha ha ha ha ha. What the heck?"

"Mwahahahahahahaha!" A voice full of jubilation and humor exclaimed from behind Noire, causing her to screech as she jumped in the air so hard that she hit the ceiling of her room. "I got you!"

Noire landed on the ground and saw, through the goop that was dripping down her face, the CPU that had introduced herself yesterday running to the window. There was a flash of light and Noire stared as the young looking CPU turned into a much older, curvier and sexier person. "...What?" She idly rubbed the bump on her head from where she jumped to the ceiling and hit her head.

"In case you forgot, Noire of Lastation." The CPU looked at her with a smug grin on her face. "My name is Neptune, though in this form, my name is Purple Heart." She put two fingers by her forehead and gave Noire a small salute. "Do try to not be boring, after all," she held up a white cloth and Noire felt her face turn bright red as she glanced down and confirmed that, yes, Purple Heart had stolen the panties she had been wearing, "you might want these back. Who knows what kind of vile, dirty, and perverted things I will do with them? You might have better luck getting these back than the CPU of Lowee has had with getting her hat back."

"YOU DIRTY PERVERT!" Noire yelled as Purple Heart flew away. There was a flash of light and Noire's hair had turned white, her eyes green and she was clothed in a black body suit. "I, CPU Black Heart, will not stand for this!" She yelled and flew off after the laughing Purple Heart.

It didn't take her long to catch up to Purple Heart, who was near the mountains that split their two nations apart. "You know, I was thinking, maybe I'll see if someone wants to buy your underwear?"

Black Heart's face turned bright red. "You wouldn't dare!"

"You're right, that wouldn't be right." Purple Heart nodded and Black Heart sighed in relief, hoping that this was just some sort of twisted way to catch her attention. "Okay, that's fine, I'll figure something else to do with them. Maybe I can post something online and ask what to do with them?"

Black Heart twitched. "You wouldn't dare. Give me my underwear back!"

Purple Heart merely smirked at her. "No. You'll have to take them back. Word of warning though, if you fail to take them back, I'm stealing your processor this time, you can fly home naked."

Black Heart twitched and growled. "GIVE ME MY PANTIES BACK!" A large sword appeared in her hands and she rushed at Purple Heart, who chuckled while grinning and putting the panties away and pulling out a large katana.

The two fought across the mountain range for several minutes, their blades clashing, along with special techniques before Black Heart found herself sitting on the ground, her sword stuck in a tree not too far away and her outfit was in tatters. There were strips of cloth over her nipples and crotch, protecting a very small amount of her dignity.

Purple Heart's outfit was also in tatters, but she was standing and pointing her katana at Black Heart. "Well, I win, but now your processor's torn up. Hmm... That's no fun. Oh! I know!" She pulled out a camera and Black Heart stared in shock as Purple Heart smiled at her, it wasn't a nice smile. What made it worse was that Purple Heart used her katana to move the strips of cloth out of the way, fully exposing Black Heart as she took pictures. "There, this will be perfect."

"I thought you wanted to be friends!" Black Heart's face was red and tears welled up in her eyes. "Friends wouldn't share those to everyone!"

"Hmm... You're right." Purple Heart said and Black Heart sighed in relief. "I'll tell you what, you go home, train and get better and challenge me to a rematch..." A slow grin came to her face as she chuckled. "As for me, I'll keep these for myself. Who knows what kind of evil, lewd and perverted things I will do?"

Black Heart twitched and growled as Purple Heart flew off. "I swear... I'll get my revenge on you!"

(-)

Almost a year later, Leanbox...

Green Heart, newly minted CPU of Leanbox, sighed as she flew home. "Can't believe there were so many monsters out there today." They weren't too bad and they had to be put down, but there had been so many of them. Yawning, she looked forward to either sitting in front of her computer and logging some MMO hours in or playing on her console or just taking a nap, whichever felt most appealing to her at that moment.

As she got closer to her Basilicom, she realized something was dreadfully wrong. After all, her Basilicom was green and white, not purple, nor fluttering in the wind. "What the heck?" She got close and touched the stuff. "...Toilet paper? ...Someone covered my Basilicom in purple toilet paper? ...Someone actually took the time to do that?" Green Heart wasn't sure whether or not to be impressed or angry.

"Lady Green Heart!" One of her Basilicom staff members waved her down and held up a disk. "Look! A message for you."

Green Heart flew down and took the disk before pulling out a portable disk player out of her inventory and pushed play. She raised an eyebrow as she saw a CPU with dark purple hair done up in braids looking at the camera. "I called you the other day, Vert of Leanbox, to ask if you wanted to be friends, you declined my offer. I understand, after all, we're enemies. By the way, nice Basilicom." Suddenly the CPU grinned and turned the camera to reveal hundreds of rolls of purple toilet paper. "I wonder if you have enough for all your bathrooms. Don't worry, I'll give them to you for free."

Green Heart twitched and she decided that, yes, she was angry. "That's it! This means war!"

"...You're going to fight because of this?" The Basilicom member asked, shocked.

Green Heart looked at her in confusion. "Who said anything about fighting? I'm going to prank her smarty-pants butt off! The prank wars have begun!"

The staff member sweat-dropped heavily.

(-)

A few weeks later...

Purple Heart was sweating as she looked at Black Heart, White Heart, and Green Heart, seeing how she was tied up and unable to move. She could transform back to normal, but she would be helpless if they decided they wanted to cause her severe pain. "...So..."

"You stole my hat!" White Heart growled, she STILL hadn't gotten her hat back yet!

"And my panties!" Black Heart was red in the face. She could only imagine what Purple Heart had been doing with her underwear.

"And you covered my Basilicom in toilet paper!" Green Heart glared at Purple Heart.

Purple Heart sweat-dropped slightly. "...You're not mad about the BL manga I slipped into your bedroom?"

Green Heart suddenly perked up in delight. "That was you? I must thank you, I've been awakened to a whole new world of enjoyment. Tell me, do you enjoy it?"

"Not really." Purple Heart muttered softly, she preferred straight and lesbian porn personally. She gulped as Green Heart's visage got dark again. "Um..."

"Ladies, even though we're enemies, I think we can agree to a truce just this once." Green Heart said, getting nods from Black and White Heart.

Purple Heart gulped again as the three CPUs somehow loomed large over her. "...Mercy?"

"No." The three said at the same time.

"YEEP!"

(-)

Several minutes later, Purple Heart found her face covered in whipped cream thanks to Black Heart, the top of her breasts doodled on thanks to White Heart and, worst of all, an Eggplant stuffed in her mouth thanks to Green Heart. 'I can't believe something so vile and disgusting exists!' She legitimately thought she was going to die the longer she had the thing in her mouth.

"You know..." White Heart tapped her chin. "While that felt nice, I still don't have my hat."

"And teaming up to humiliate her..." Black Heart was grimacing. "I don't feel like I accomplished anything."

"Hmph!" Green Heart smirked as she crossed her arms under her breasts, enjoying how they bounced as she did so. "Well, obviously, I was most effective."

"What did you say?!" Both White and Black Heart yelled at the same time as Green Heart chuckled.

"You heard me." She smirked at them. "Unless you two think you can out-prank each other, myself and Purple Heart, just admit I was the best."

"Dream on!" Black Heart yelled in anger.

"Yeah! I'll show you!" White Heart snarled. "I'll leave you so humiliated you'll never show your fat ass ever again!"

"Fat ass?" Green Heart twitched in annoyance. Her butt was not fat! Her hips were wide and her boobs were big, so her butt being big was a natural result! "So then we agree? Prank War?"

"YES!" The other two yelled and flew off to their Basilicoms. Green Heart chuckled and flew towards hers.

After they were gone, Purple Heart glowed and turned back into Neptune. After squirming and struggling to get out of the trap she was in, as it was designed to hold her HDD form, not her human form, she got to her feet and ripped the eggplant out of her mouth. "BLEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHH! OH MY TRUE GODDESS THAT IS DISGUSTING!" Neptune yelled while trying to claw at her tongue. "Imma make growing eggplants in Planeptune illegal!"

After calming down from the near poisoning via eggplant, Neptune smiled brightly. "They're better than the CPUs that ran their nations before them." That gave her hope that she could be friends with them and a part of her mind noted that she had at least partially got what she had wanted. At least they weren't fighting violently or trying to kill each other in their sleep.

"I just hope it lasts." Neptune muttered and hoped that she could become friends with them in the future.

* * *

And that's how Neptune, Noire, Vert and Blanc all met in this world.

Remember, both Vert and Blanc have commented that the war wasn't always about fighting violently, that at one point they were trying to humiliate each other and not kill each other.

And yes, Purple Heart was a LOT more playful in this world than she is in canon. Or, at least, more openly playful in this world.

Anyway, that's it for this flashback.

Hmm... Oh! I know! Time for a Nepstation!

* * *

"Welcome to Nepstation, I'm C-Sha and with me is..."

"Blanc."

"So that was an interesting flashback, huh? She stole your hat?"

"...I LIKED that hat. It was my first one."

"Did you ever get it back, Blanny?"

"No. Oh well, at least my panties never got stolen."

"I HEARD THAT!"

"Oh, it's Norry."

"Don't call me that, C-Sha!"

"I suppose getting your panties stolen is less embarrassing than what Neptune did to you while you were asleep."

"Oh? What happened to Norry in her sleep?"

"Well, she..."

"Don't tell her, afro-head."

"...You just HAD to remind me of that, didn't you?"

"What's this about Blanny being an afro-head?"

"...Nothing, fine, Noire, I won't comment about what happened in your sleep."

"What? What? Someone tell me!"

"Anyway, Blanc, let's hurry up before, uh..."

"MMMPH!"

"Fine, if Blanny won't tell me, I'll smother her in my boobs!"

"...She really isn't fighting too hard to get free, is she?"

"Nope. Anyway, we're almost out of time. Want to give a preview?"

"Sure. Jupiter and the others are finishing up their time in Leanbox, soon it's time to return home, but what will they find when they get home? Wait, what? Is someone dying or something?"

"Or something. Anyway, this is C-Sha..."

"...And Noire..."

"...Mmm..."

"I think Blanny's liking this too much."

"Or she passed out. Anyway, that's it for us, we're signing off."


	21. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

Just so everyone knows, I posted a new One Shot on my profile. It's just something I did for fun, go read and review that one after you're done here if you haven't already.

* * *

It was the next morning in Leanbox and Jupiter found herself eating breakfast with Compa, IF, Vert, Uni, Rom and Ram. "So what is this called?"

"Oven baked pancakes." Compa answered as she took a bite. "It's more cake than a pan, but it's really good."

"Indeed," Vert smiled at Compa, "why, I have to be careful otherwise this will not only go to my boobs, but also my butt. And as glorious as they are, I doubt that I could handle them getting any larger."

IF, Uni and even Jupiter all had dour expressions on their faces as they listened to Vert comment on her large bust.

"Lady Vert never seems to put on weight no matter what she does." Compa commented with a slightly annoyed expression on her face. "Being a Goddess is quite handy."

"To an extent." Vert nodded at her. "I do admit that it has its perks. Compa, you do seem irritable today, are you okay?"

Compa nodded and took a deep breath. "I apologize, Lady Vert, I am just a bit over-tired."

IF looked away, her face flush with embarrassment. The fact that she had to wake up several times last night to go to the bathroom was bad enough, but the fact that Compa had to help her get to the bathroom each time was even worse.

"I see, well perhaps..." Vert trailed off as there was a knocking at the door. "Come in." She said and stood up as the door opened.

"Forgive me, Lady Vert." One of her Basilicom members said and held up a rather thick manila envelope. "This arrived this morning for miss IF."

"For me?" IF looked at the envelope curiously. "I don't recall ordering anything."

The Basilicom member shrugged and brought the envelope over to IF. "Could you sign this?" The member gave IF a pen and IF looked at the sheet curiously. "The delivery ninja won't leave unless you sign this."

"Delivery ninja?" Jupiter asked in confusion. 'That sounds familiar... Wait, doesn't sis have a bunch of...'

"A blue robotic ninja showed up just a few minutes ago with this and stated that we needed miss IF's signature or he can't leave."

"Robotic ninja?" Uni asked, her eyes actually started to sparkle as she heard that. "Does he have a jet pack or something?"

"Or something." Jupiter muttered softly. 'The only way one of them would show up is if sis authorized this, but Histoire said she'd do it behind sis's back, what's going on?'

"What was that?"

"Nothing." Jupiter answered Uni. "So, did the ninja say where he's from?"

The Basilicom member shrugged. "He showed up, said he had a package for IF. We scanned it, it's just a bunch of papers, so I don't think there's anything that can harm anyone. Unless it's the Hentainomicron or something."

Vert and Uni both blushed, knowing what the Basilicom member was talking about while Jupiter, Rom, Ram and Compa just looked on in confusion.

IF finished signing the paper and gave it to the Basilicom member. "Thanks."

"Not a problem, miss IF." The member quickly bowed and left the room.

Sighing, IF opened the envelope and tilted it so the contents would dump onto the table next to her plate. Some small booklets and papers that were bound by a thick thread fell onto the table with an open sheet with writing on top facing IF. "What's this?" IF carefully undid the thread and pulled the sheet close to read it.

Everyone watched as IF suddenly started to tremble as she read it.

"What's wrong, IF?" Vert asked softly. "Is it bad news?"

IF lowered the paper, tears falling out of her eyes and she shook her head. "I, hic..." She handed it to Compa as she started to cry softly.

Compa took the paper and her eyes widened. "This is..." She gasped. "To Miss IF, this is the CPU of Planeptune, Lilac Heart," there were gasps from everyone at the table as Compa continued to read from the paper, "it recently came to my attention that you were gravely injured helping a nurse while on an adventure. While I would normally offer my condolences, that is not what this letter is about. The injuries that you have suffered can be treated in Planeptune. Our doctors have developed medical technology that can repair injuries to a person's body from healing broken bones in childhood, to myopia and even grievous injuries that would normally prevent someone from living their lives normally. Please realize that this is a very rare exception. There are passports and travel papers for you and your nurse, Compa I believe her name is, to come to Planeptune for treatment."

"Sis..." Jupiter whispered in awe. A grin came to her face while everyone else was staring at Compa in shock while IF trembled. "That's great!" Jupiter's voice shook everyone out of their sudden stupor. "Didn't you say that you'd jump at the chance to get healed?"

"But what if they can't?" IF asked as she looked at her bad leg. "I don't want to find out that this is another dead end and that I'm just getting my hopes up for nothing."

"IF," Vert spoke up, causing the brown haired girl to look at her. "Even during the war, Planeptune was far more advanced than any of the other nations. If they say that they've developed medical technology that can heal your injury, you should take it." IF nodded and Vert narrowed her eyes. "I am honestly surprised, however. This is the first time that I've heard of Planeptune's CPU doing this."

"How do you think she found out?" Ram asked, wondering if maybe her original assessment of Lilac Heart being a big meanie was wrong.

"I don't..." Vert trailed off and thought about it for a moment. "I don't remember if I did or not, but I may have mentioned this to Histoire. As she is rather close to Nepgear, it wouldn't surprise me if she convinced Nepgear to do this."

"So..." IF said softly.

Vert smiled at her. "IF, Compa, take the rest of the week off and get ready to go traveling." She stood up. "I'll arrange transport to Lastation. From there I'll get you to the Planeptune border."

"You know, I don't think there was a single day that I was here that we got to actually finish breakfast." Jupiter mentioned as everyone but her and Uni got up excitedly.

"I'll finish breakfast with you." Uni said, getting a smile from Jupiter.

"Thanks."

It didn't take them long to finish, both felt a bit anxious with everyone else having left the table so fast. "So, um..." Jupiter looked at Uni, who looked back at her curiously. "This is probably the last time we'll see each other, huh?"

Uni gave her a confused frown. "What are you talking about? Aren't we friends?"

Jupiter laughed and rubbed the back of her head while grinning like a fool. "Well, yeah! We are, but I don't know if or when I'll have time to get out and go on a trip like this again." She lowered her arm and smiled at Uni softly. "So, I wanted to say... Thanks, for being my friend. I'm glad to have met you."

Uni blushed and nodded. "I'm glad we're friends too."

'I should tell her...' Jupiter thought and nodded to herself. "Hey, Uni, there's something..."

"Juppy!" Compa stuck her head in. "Uni! Are you two done eating? Lady Vert wants to get to Lastation this morning."

"Ah! Sure!" Uni nodded and smiled at Compa before turning back to Jupiter. "What were you going to say?"

Jupiter shook her head. "Nothing. Let's go." Mentally she was kicking herself for being a little coward. 'What would she do if she found out I was Planeptune's CPU Candidate though?'

Jupiter didn't know and that bothered her.

(-)

"So you'll be coming to Lastation today then?" Noire asked Vert over the video screen, getting a nod from the buxom blonde.

"Indeed." Vert smiled at Noire. "I'm surprised Blanc isn't on the line as well."

"Because I'm already here." Blanc said as she popped up behind Noire. She gave Vert a deadpan stare. "Noire said she had a report ready for me with what happened at the amusement park when the automatons went out of control, so I came early today. It makes things easy for me if my sisters will show up today as well."

Vert clapped her hands and smiled. "Excellent. I will be showing up a bit later, I'll send your sisters and Jupiter to the Basilicom ahead of time."

"Speaking of which..." Noire looked at Vert curiously. "How did it go?" Blanc perked up as she realized what Noire was referring to.

Vert tapped her chin and looked lost in thought for a moment. "I can't say one way or the other. I would like to say that she's not absolutely terrified of CPUs anymore, she might still be nervous, but less than a week surely isn't enough time to undo whatever she was fed. However, I feel as though she won't be as scared, provided you two keep your tempers in check." She giggled as they both rolled their eyes at her. "Anyway, I'll have to see IF and Compa off at the Planeptune border."

"Huh?" Both Blanc and Noire gave Vert a confused look.

"Oh, that's right, you don't know." Vert nodded at them. "Apparently Nepgear heard about IF's condition and sent travel papers to Leanbox." Both Noire and Blanc gave her an absolutely shocked look and Vert giggled softly. "I imagine that's how I looked when Compa read the letter Nepgear sent. Do you understand why I haven't given up on her yet, Blanc?"

"Tch..." Blanc had a bit of a disgruntled look on her face, but she didn't argue anything. 'Seems she's not completely consumed by hatred then, huh?' Blanc was actually relieved at that. The thought of a Goddess consumed by nothing but hate could only lead to another great calamity.

"Anyway, we'll be in Lastation in a few minutes." Vert smiled and turned off the communications.

"...So Blanc..." Noire looked at the other CPU. "Are you going to say it?"

"Feh," Blanc sneered at Noire, "just because that brat does something nice once in her life doesn't mean that anything's different than it was before."

Noire gave her a sad look and nodded. "Whatever you say." Noire was disappointed, but she understood. No matter how it seemed, Nepgear wasn't neither an ally nor a friend of theirs. 'Purple Heart, I really am sorry, I don't know how to fulfill your final request.'

Noire wondered, when she finally met her end, whether in battle or because her followers stopped believing in her, what she would say to Purple Heart. Or if they would even meet at all.

(-)

After seeing off Jupiter, Uni, Rom and Ram, Vert transformed into Green Heart and carried IF and Compa in her arms before flying towards the checkpoint of the Planeptune-Lastation border.

"Lady Green Heart, are you sure this is safe?" Compa asked.

"It will be fine." Green Heart answered as they flew towards the border. It only took a minute of flight for her to get to the border of Planeptune and Lastation. Walking forward, she mentally sighed at the guards who suddenly tensed up. "At ease, everyone, were I to come with ill intent, do you think I would be carrying two civilians?"

"Please wait one moment, CPU Green Heart." One of the guards said and rushed inside.

Green Heart nodded and hovered just off the ground, five feet away while putting Compa down. Compa pulled out IF's wheelchair and Green Heart gently lowered IF onto it.

Just as IF got settled in, an older looking woman walked out of the checkpoint. "CPU Green Heart, it's been a long time." Her hair was thin and grey and her face incredibly wrinkled and she wore an old military uniform while walking with a cane. "I suppose it's been fifty years since the battle near the Green Hill Islands when I took out an entire Battalion of yours with just two other people."

"Major MASA, is that you?" Green Heart raised an eyebrow as the old woman nodded. "My, you've gotten much older."

"Perils of being human, I'm afraid." The old woman coughed softly. "I thought that the CPUs didn't desire conflict anymore, what brings you here?"

"Of course," Green Heart nodded as she pulled out a manila envelope. "CPU Lilac Heart had this delivered to my Basilicom this morning, inside you'll find travel papers and a passport for entry for these two young ladies, IF and Compa."

"Ah, I had been told that two people by those names would be showing up sometime in the future." The old woman smiled as a guard went to Green Heart and took the envelope from her. "I didn't expect it to be so soon." She nodded at the guards and they relaxed. "I hope you understand that we can't let you through the checkpoint, CPU Green Heart."

"Of course I do." Green Heart nodded. "IF, Compa, do not worry, no harm will come to you."

"Of course not." Major MASA smirked at the goddess. "I've got my pride. Anyway, ladies, there's a transport inside to take you to Planeptune hospital." After the two girls entered the checkpoint and were loaded onto the transport, Major MASA looked at Green Heart, a gentle look on her face. "I remember being so terrified of you when you and Purple Heart fought while our armies clashed in the ocean. I think three islands disappeared in your fight with her."

"That battle feels like it happened ages ago." Green Heart answered. "To me it feels like it happened almost five hundred years ago."

"We humans might be able to push to over a century," Major MASA coughed and hacked for several moments before taking a deep breath, "but five hundred is too much for any of us. I'm only as healthy as I am because how Lady Lilac Heart optimized everything in Planeptune."

"...How is she?" Green Heart asked, causing Major MASA to smile softly.

"She's a hard worker and everyone loves her, but we all worry about her." Major MASA sighed softly. "You know, I remember hearing of stories of the CPU before Purple Heart, what was her name? U-something or other, bah!" Major MASA waved her hand in annoyance. "I'm getting old, I can't remember anymore."

"I'll be going now." Green Heart nodded to Major MASA and turned away to fly back to Lastation.

"Just a piece of advice, Green Heart." The Goddess looked at at her in confusion. "Take it from an old lady, regrets are something we all live with and opportunities to make those regrets go away become few and far between as we get older."

Green Heart gave her a small smile. "Thank you." Materializing her wings on her back, Green Heart took off towards Lastation.

(-)

"So how did it go?" Noire asked as Green Heart landed on the balcony of the Basilicom and turned back into Vert.

"About as well as one could expect." Vert answered her and cupped her chin with a whimsical look on her face. "Saw an old soldier that I recall took out an entire battalion by herself and two others." Vert enjoyed people who were beautiful, it was true, but she could easily respect strength and fortitude. "Where are your sisters?"

"Showing Jupiter around the Basilicom." Noire answered her. "Before you ask, no, we haven't seen them yet, I called Uni and told her to show Jupiter around here first. I figure letting her see that this place doesn't have kinky torture chambers every other room that it might put her at ease." Noire blushed at the looks she got. "I read online that someone thought that's what goes on in here."

"Feh, that hasn't happened since the exploding penguin incident anyway."

"Yeah that's..." Noire blinked a few times as she realized what Blanc had said. "HEY! That never happened even back then!"

Vert giggled at the memory of that incident.

(-)

Uni, Jupiter, Rom and Ram were in the living area of the Basilicom, not far from Noire's office, playing a game together.

"HA!" Ram cheered as she won. "Oh yeah! I'm the best!"

"I blame the fact that you play Bash Brothers all the time." Uni grumbled, having lost first. "Still, what do you think? Noire's hoping that Lastation All Stars sells well enough and gets some sequels."

"It's pretty fun." Rom nodded. "Not as good as Bash Brothers, but it's kind of neat to play something similar that plays differently."

"Well it's not like the first Bash Brothers game was the best either." Uni scoffed at the twins. "What do you think, Jupiter?"

"...Can we play again? But no using the Gravity Queen this time, Ram."

Uni and Rom nodded with Uni giving Ram an annoyed smirk. "Yeah, miss "I'm the best", that character's known for being overwhelmingly good."

"Hmph! Fine! I'll just use this scary looking clown then!"

"Clowns are scary." Rom trembled as she chose her character. "I like this kitty."

Uni and Jupiter chose their characters, this time Uni chose a cyborg ninja while Jupiter chose a screaming maniac with incredible reach in his attacks.

In the end, Uni managed to win when she let loose a level three super.

(-)

"That was pretty fun." Jupiter was laughing with Uni after they had finished the game after several more matches and had to deal with the twins impromptu pillow fight surprise attack. Sadly the twins had won that one as they had all the pillows, including the throw pillows and neither Uni nor Jupiter had any and all they could do was hide behind the couch before surrendering.

"So what do you want to do now?" Rom asked as the group walked down the hallway of the Basilicom.

"Rom, Ram..." Blanc spoke up as she, Vert and Noire walked up to the group. "Did you have fun?"

"Uh huh." Ram nodded. "Lastation's Bash Brothers knock off wasn't as good as ours."

Blanc smirked while Noire flushed. "Can't come up with something original, Noire?"

"It's using some classic and beloved Lastation mascots." Noire scoffed. "At least all of ours were major characters. How many Flame Sigil characters were in your latest Bash Brothers game again? And how many of your characters haven't had a game in forever?"

Blanc narrowed her eyes and gave Noire a grin. "Major characters? Compared to what? Some Indy developer using retro graphics to sell a poorly made game that preaches at you rather than tells a good story or has good characters?"

"And how many fighting or RPG games from major publishers have been on your systems lately?" Noire asked as sparks started to fly between the two of them while they glared at each other.

"...Does this happen often?" Jupiter asked in a whisper to Uni.

"Yes." Rom, Ram and Uni all said at the same time in a deadpan voice.

"Oh." Jupiter nodded and spoke up louder. "Well, for what it's worth," the two CPUs stopped glaring at each other and turned to her, "I thought it was a lot of fun. Maybe you should try a Musou Mascot game or something?"

"Musou?" Vert asked, the term seemed familiar but she couldn't place it.

"Mass crowd control beat 'em ups..." Noire clarified and Vert nodded in understanding. "Hmm... That could be a lot of fun, actually."

Blanc narrowed her eyes in mild annoyance. "Hmph! Considering how many mascot games Lowee puts out, a Musou game or two not on our systems won't be a big loss."

Jupiter fought the urge to laugh nervously, but she could see that the CPUs weren't too bad, though she really didn't feel like she belonged here for several reasons. Pulling out her phone, she pursed her lips softly. The day wasn't too far gone, but she was starting to get homesick. "Um, if it's okay, I'd like to get going."

"Huh?!" More than one person yelled at the same time as everyone looked at Jupiter, who scratched the back of her head.

"You're leaving?" Uni asked, frowning softly.

"Yeah," Jupiter nodded at her. "It's been awhile since I was at home, I want to see sis again."

"That's fair." Uni sighed softly. "I'll miss you."

"Yeah! Come visit us sometime in Lowee!" Ram grinned at Jupiter while Rom walked up and hugged the other girl. "Hey!" Ram ran over and hugged her too. "You're cool."

"Uh huh! Very cool." Rom nodded.

"D'aww!" Jupiter giggled as she hugged them back and looked at Uni, who was fidgeting in place, at least until Vert got behind her and bumped Uni from behind with her hip, sending the girl stumbling forward and into Jupiter, causing the two to crash onto the ground. "OOOF! You okay?"

Uni laid on top of her, nodding and hugging her. "Don't be a stranger, okay? I'll give you my number so you can call me."

Noire just watched, smiling softly. 'Still, there's something about this girl, what is it? The more I look at her the more I'm reminded of something, but what?' She couldn't understand why either.

After the two girls got up and exchanged numbers, the group saw Jupiter out of the Basilicom and watched as she ran off.

"Odd how she's heading West." Noire muttered softly. "Didn't you say that she got lost a few times in your Basilicom, Vert?" Vert nodded and Noire bit her lower lip. "...Alright then... Marvy, could you come here?"

"Yes, Lady Noire?" An extremely busty girl with shoulder-length red hair, red eyes with a musical note for pupils who was wearing a red ribbon around her neck, a white button up shirt that only had one button clasped as the shirt stretched over her bust seemingly appeared out of nowhere. She wore a gray jacket around her waist over a pleated skirt and two swords at her side.

When one looked at her and then looked at Vert, it was a toss-up as to which one had more volume in their chest.

"You know that girl that was just here? Could you follow her?"

"NOIRE!" Uni yelled, a shocked and disappointed look on her face. "You're not going to..."

"Relax, Uni," Noire sighed at Uni's over-protectiveness. "I'm actually worried that Jupiter will get lost on the way home. I just want Marvy to follow her and make sure she gets home safely is all." Noire looked at Marvy. "Please take care not to get seen if you don't need to and report back when she gets home."

"Of course." Marvy nodded and jumped into the air, seemingly disappearing.

Uni frowned at Noire. "You could have gone yourself or had me go. Why use Marvelous for this?!" She knew her sister had to have a good reason, asking someone of Marvy's skill level for a simple mission was a waste of the ninja's talents.

"I have my reasons." Noire flicked a hand through her long hair and looked at the other CPUs. "Would you two mind sticking around for a bit longer?"

"Do you think something bad will happen?" Vert asked as Noire gave her a look that was both stern and confused at the same time.

"Honestly... I don't know what to expect." Noire knew that if she was wrong about her hunch that Uni would probably never forgive her for what she was doing.

Uni glared at her sister before turning to look in the direction Jupiter had left. "...Be safe, Jupiter."

(-)

An hour later...

"I got lost? HOW IN GAMINDUSTRI DO I GET LOST HEADING WEST?!" Jupiter screamed as she grabbed her head with both hands and rubbed her scalp up and down rapidly. "I blame that darn red balloon that distracted me!" She slumped and pouted as she sighed heavily. Pulling up her HUD, she grimaced at how there was no data on Lastation. "I really should have asked Uni or Black Heart for a map."

Not far away, behind a rock formation, Marvy giggled softly. She had seen Jupiter look up at a red balloon and had, for some reason, ran after it. 'Cute kid, easily distracted though.' If she went any further North, Jupiter would end up in Lowee and Marvy wasn't sure that the kid wanted to head into that winter wonderland dressed like that.

"Let's see..." Jupiter stood up and looked around. "Okay, those mountains look KIND of familiar..." She pulled up her HUD and brought up the map of Planeptune before her eyes went white and blank. "Crap!" She knew where she was now. "Those mountains are where the really strong enemies are at!"

Not far away, Marvy sighed as she heard that. 'Yeah, I better help her, she might go running into that area and get caught by a level three hundred dogoo or something.'

Jupiter hung her head and started to whine. "Dang it! I just want to go home! I miss sis! I miss Histoire! I miss my HOME! That's it! I don't care!"

Marvy's eyes widened in shock and she fell on her butt as Jupiter was engulfed in light. "No... Way... Jupiter is... A CPU?"

When the light faded, Jupiter looked at herself and nodded before spreading her wings and taking off into the air. "I just hope that no one sees me before I can turn back to normal."

After Jupiter flew above the clouds and disappeared, Marvy stood up, her face pale. "Lady Noire needs to know about this." She spun around and quickly rushed back to Lastation's Basilicom.

(-)

Several minutes later...

"Would you two calm down?" Blanc asked as she saw the Lastation sisters pacing around the floor in Noire's office. Vert was keeping Rom and Ram occupied with coloring books, at least Blanc HOPED they were coloring books and not her novels...

Or worse, R-18 doujins. The last thing she needed was to explain just why there were naked people doing things to each other in those books when she got home. 'Especially if C-Sha's around, she'll never stop teasing me about it.'

Noire stopped and sighed. "You're right, I just can't help it though."

"And why are you so suspicious of my friend?" Uni glared at Noire. "Huh? What? Do you think she works for some sort of Anti-CPU militia or something?!"

Noire shook her head. "No, that's not it. Whenever I look at her, I feel like there's something I'm forgetting, but I can't remember what it is." Seeing Uni's glare intensify, she nodded. "When Marvy comes back if she tells us that Jupiter got home safely and there was nothing out of the ordinary, I'll personally give her an apology, okay?" She smiled softly as Uni's glare lessened and she nodded. "Anyway, I hope that I'm wrong and I'm just being..."

"LADY NOIRE!" Marvy screamed as she burst through the doors of the balcony and into the office, her eyes were wide and her face was pale as she panted heavily, her large breasts heaving with each breath and threatening to break her shirt into pieces. "EMERGENCY!"

"What?!" Noire was about to turn into Black Heart at that moment. "What's going on?"

"Jupiter..." Marvy panted as she tried to catch her breath. "Jupiter is..." Running at top speed while bounding over everything and keeping her breasts from bursting out of her outfit hadn't been too easy and left the redhead slightly winded. "She..."

"What!?" Uni was in front of Marvy and grabbed her by her vest and lifted her up, worry on her face. "Did something happen?! Is she okay?! She's not hurt is she?!"

Marvy shook her head. "She... Fine... Just..." Marvy took a deep breath to calm herself down. "Lady Noire! Jupiter is a CPU!"

"WHAT?!" Everyone in the room but Uni screamed in shock while Uni felt her fingers go numb from the shock as she let Marvy go, the ninja's large breasts bouncing heavily with the motion, Uni's eyes were wide and her face pale.

"Are you sure?" Vert asked, the ramifications of this information was intense.

"Yes." Marvy nodded. "She was engulfed in light and numbers before her outfit and hair color both changed, she had wings and flew off into the air, high above the clouds."

"...Nep...tune..." Noire said, her eyes wide as she trembled. "That... That's why she looked so familiar to me! She looks like Purple Heart when she was in her human form!"

Both Vert and Blanc stiffened in realization. For Blanc, she couldn't believe she didn't realize it sooner, even if she had known Planeptune's previous CPU as Purple Heart mostly, she had seen Purple Heart's human form plenty of times in the past that she could recall exactly what Neptune looked like with ease. 'Why couldn't I remember?!'

Vert, on the other hand, had an expression that was of pure disbelief. "...Everything suddenly makes sense." Everyone but Uni, who was still stunned, looked at her. "Her fear of Noire, Blanc and myself, her questions about the Console Wars, the fact that she was so defensive of us CPUs when Abnes was talking poorly about us... She's Nepgear's younger sister..."

"I don't recall hearing anything about Planeptune having a CPU Candidate!" Blanc snarled, though her mind was racing. 'Even if information coming from Planeptune is minimal, you'd think rumors of a CPU Candidate out of Planeptune would have surfaced at the very least!'

"N...No wonder..." Uni muttered softly, though for some reason everyone was able to hear her. "No wonder she asked me what I would do if I found out that Lilac Heart had a little sister..." She fell to her hands and knees as she started to sniffle while tears came to her eyes. "She's Planeptune's CPU Candidate... And..." She sniffled more as tears started falling faster out of her eyes. "I told her that I didn't think that Lilac Heart's little sister would be worth being friends with! UWAAAAH!" Uni screamed, sobbing loudly while Vert ran over and knelt down next to her, hugging the crying girl to her breasts, rocking back and forth softly while Uni gripped her tightly and cried.

"...That big meanie!" Ram suddenly yelled, anger all over her face.

"Huh?!" Everyone looked at Ram in shock, save for Uni, who was still crying.

"That meanie CPU gets mad at us for accidentally going into her nation and she sends her little sister into our nations!"

As she heard that, Uni stiffened in shock and started to tremble. "An... And Jupiter asked about our military strength..." Vert's arms went slack around Uni, who stepped away from her, nodding her thanks, not that Vert noticed, as she was looking rather shocked at that moment.

"...THAT BRAT!" Blanc snarled as anger surged through her. "She sent her sister to spy on us?!" She looked at Rom and Ram and a cold burst of fear gripped her heart as she remembered what Nepgear had told them at that conference.

_"I could have killed your sisters when they trespassed in my country. But I didn't. Because unlike you three I know the pain of losing someone important to me."_

Blanc's face was pale as she shivered horribly. "Sh...She wouldn't... Would she? With our military's as weak as they are and the share situation right now..."

"This is... Not comforting." Vert bit her thumb as she tried to think of something to say. Looking at Uni and Rom, she saw that both were looking shocked and miserable at that moment.

There was a flash of light in the room and everyone looked at Noire, or rather Black Heart as she stood there cutting an imposing figure. "Enough! All of you! Calm down and think! Let's not assume the worst about anyone! For all we know, Nepgear has no idea that her sister was out in our nations."

Blanc sneered, but knew Noire was probably right. "So what do you propose?"

Black Heart took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "I'll contact her and request a face to face meeting on official CPU business." Vert and Blanc both looked at her in surprise. "You both know that she won't refuse such a meeting if it's official business."

"Yeah, and maybe she'll agree and you'll walk into a trap and she'll use that damn sword on you!" Blanc snarled in anger. Her eye went red when Black Heart took a deep breath and nodded. "DO YOU NOT EVEN CARE?!"

"Uni." Black Heart ignored Blanc and looked at her sister before walking up to her and hugging her tightly.

"N...Noire? What..."

Black Heart had her eyes closed. "When I go off to Planeptune... If... If something happens to me. If I end up being killed by Lilac Heart out of retribution for what I did to her all those years ago, I want you to promise me... I want you to promise me that you will not hate Nepgear."

"But..." Uni started to protest.

"Uni! The animosity between our nations needs to end." Black Heart let go of the hug and stepped back as she looked her sister in the eyes. "If my death will satisfy that, then so be it, but I want you to promise me that you won't seek revenge on her if it comes down to it."

"Noire..." Uni sniffled, trembling. "No... Please... Don't talk like that. You sound like you're going off to die."

"I don't want to, but there's a possibility that I could be dead soon." Black Heart gave Uni a gentle smile while cupping her younger sister's face and gently rubbing her cheek. "...I finally understand now..."

"Huh?" Uni had a confused look on her face.

"Why Purple Heart made that recording for us, why she wanted us to be friends with Lilac Heart and why she spoke like she was knew she was going to die. Vert, Blanc, please, could you two stay here while I go and call Nepgear?" They nodded and got Uni, Rom and Ram out of the office while Black Heart went to her desk to make the call.

As they walked off, Black Heart knew why she finally understood why Purple Heart had made that recording. Taking one last look at Uni, who looked back at her with trembling eyes, Black Heart smiled softly. 'Neptune, I might be joining you soon, when I do, will you let me apologize? And Uni, I'm sorry.'

"The reason you made that recording for us..." Black Heart whispered as tears leaked out of her eyes after the others left the room. "Was because you wanted your sister to have a better world than the one you helped rule over, even if it meant that you wouldn't be here to see it, isn't that right, Neptune?"

After getting her emotions under control, Black Heart turned on the video call screen and waited for someone to pick up. When the screen lit up with the person on the other end looking surprised, Black Heart nodded. "Hello, Histoire, it's been awhile."

"Yes, yes it has. Is there something you need, Black Heart?"

"I wish to speak with Lilac Heart on official CPU business."

Histoire's eyes widened as she heard that. "Very well, I shall contact her and let her know of your request. Please wait for me to call you back."

Black Heart nodded as the screen turned off. 'All I can do now is wait.' She thought to herself as she turned back into Noire. "I wonder how this will go down." She said to herself softly.

Noire certainly didn't want to die and leave Uni alone, but she knew that it was a strong possibility. She leaned back in her chair and looked out the window, noticing how the sky, despite the fact that it was early in the morning, was looking dark as thick, dark clouds started to gather in the sky.

* * *

Before you ask, everyone's freaking out, even Noire, that's why they aren't thinking clearly.

And hey, Steamax gets a cameo reference!

Okay, time to clear some stuff up.

1: Major MASA might be an OC, but she's basically another Maker character. There was a game on the Dreamcast called "Conflict Zone" by MASA Group. While it got ported to other systems later, it was originally a Sega exclusive and was a RTS Military-based game. So why not have a Major named MASA after the group?

2: The red balloon is a reference to the RPG Wild Arms (original on PS1 with the remake on the PS2). Calling it evil is a reference to X-Play's review of the remake.

3: What? You thought that the CPUs would be as strong as they were during the Console Wars?

* * *

"Welcome to Nepstation. I'm Plutia and with me is..."

"Waaaaaaaaaaah! Oh man! Nep Jr.'s going to find out, she's going to get mad and then go full Conquest on everyone! Waah aaah aaaah aaaah!"

"Neppy, calm down, I'm sure..."

"She needs an injection of Vitamin Nep!"

"Well, if you must know..."

"But there's no way to get her that! Now she's going to go all Dark CPU and..."

"Peashy, can you calm Neppy down?"

"PEA HEADBUTT!"

"GOOG!"

"...Peashy, why are you in HDD?"

"Because I want to show off my bikini, Ploot!"

"...Yarn is thicker."

"Uh huh! But it covers all my naughty spots!"

"...Peashy, it barely covers your crotch, in fact, I can see parts of it from here."

"Huh? I have parts down there? But I'm not a boy!"

"Well, that's all the time we have. This is Plutia..."

"...And Yellow Heart in nothing but..."

*RIIIP*

"Pea is now naked!"

"Nep Jr. needs... Vitamin... Nep..."

"Bye bye, everyone! I have to sew up more clothes for Peashy, teach her some stuff and get Neppy to lay down."


	22. Chapter 17

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

The worst part about this fic? Having to wait to post the new chapters for you guys.

This chapter will shake up the rest of the fic, I guarantee it.

Also, before we begin, this is a reminder that Brave Neptunia/Super Neptunia RPG comes out on the PS4 and Switch in the West on Tuesday. So pick it up if you can.

* * *

As she flew over the clouds through the area with strong enemies, Jupiter sighed in relief as she saw her nation. She had come to like the other nations as well, even Lowee, as much as it tried to freeze her bits off, was a really pretty place. 'Still, I better get to the ground before someone sees me and thinks that I'm an enemy CPU.' Sure, it was unlikely anyone could see her through the clouds she was over, which, as Jupiter looked around, were pretty thick and full of static, plus very, very moist. 'Huh, we're probably going to get rain sometime today.' She knew that her sister hated rain and storms, she never really understood why, but whenever it stormed she found Nepgear in her bed, clinging to her like she would disappear at any moment.

Spotting a clearing in a forest not far from the mountain range, Jupiter kicked it into high gear and flew towards it at high speed. After breaking through the trees, she closed her eyes and transformed back to normal. "Why is HDD so tiring anyway?" Jupiter didn't quite understand it, if the Goddesses were supposed to protect their nations from invaders, monsters and everything else, they needed HDD, but keeping it up for long periods of time was a pain. "Then again, I'm basically leeching off of sis's shares, people aren't putting any direct faith in me."

Stretching, Jupiter took a deep breath and smiled. "It's good to be back." She pulled out her phone and mulled over making a call to her sister but thought against it. "After all, I wanna surprise her!" Plus she could see that the signal wasn't too good due to all the static energy that was building up in the air.

Pulling up her HUD so she didn't get lost, Jupiter went straight to the Basilicom.

(-)

It took her a little over half an hour to get from where she was back to the Basilicom. Sighing as she rode the elevator up to the living quarters, Jupiter couldn't help but smile. 'Sis, I hope she's in a good mood.'

After the elevator opened up and she stepped off, Jupiter walked out and looked at the living room area and sighed softly. Compared to Leanbox, Lastation or Lowee, it was depressingly empty, feeling more like a room than a place to relax, hang out with friends or just play games.

Still, that wasn't why she had come home early. Walking out of the living quarters, she made her way to her sister's office and wondered why the door was open.

"...and I don't see why I should meet with her." Nepgear was talking to someone, likely Histoire, as only the tome and Jupiter ever really went into Nepgear's office for any reason.

"Nepgear, please, if she went through the effort to call me for such a request, then it must be important." Was the rebuttal from Histoire and Jupiter smiled. Sure, they were arguing, but that was fairly common for the two of them. As much as she liked Histoire, she knew that Nepgear wasn't too overly fond of the tome. 'Then again, other than me, is sis really fond of anyone?'

Deciding now would be a good time to interrupt as she walked into the office. "Histoire! Sis! I'm home!" She saw that Nepgear was actually standing up instead of sitting behind her desk as usual.

"Jupiter!" Both of them turned to face her, surprise on their faces.

Giggling, Jupiter ran up to Nepgear and hugged her sister. "I missed you, sis." Burying her face into her sister's chest always felt relaxing. Sure, Nepgear was much smaller than Vert was, but Jupiter didn't mind, her sister's more modest chest was easier to hug and bury her face into without worrying about suffocating.

Nepgear could feel the corners of her mouth creeping upwards slightly as she hugged Jupiter back. "I missed you too." She looked at Histoire. "Call her back and tell her that if she wants to meet, she'll have to wait three hours and I'll tell you where to set up the meeting place then. If she asks why, just tell her that I'm seeing someone important."

Histoire gave Nepgear a smile and floated out of the room.

After Histoire left, Nepgear went back to hugging Jupiter before letting go and putting her hands on Jupiter's shoulders so she could get a good look at her sister when Jupiter took a step back. "You look like you've actually grown."

Jupiter giggled at that. "Come on, sis, you know we don't age."

A soft noise escaped Nepgear's lips as she nodded. "Yeah. I wish you had called me ahead of time, I would have made stew." Jupiter's eyes lit up at that.

"Well, we have time, don't we?" She spread her arms out to the side. "Let's make it together!"

Nepgear blinked as she thought about it and nodded. "I'd like that." When Jupiter just grinned and giggled at her, Nepgear felt a warm sensation enter her chest. "Oh, Jupiter, I should have said when I saw you come in, but..." She hugged her sister again. "Welcome home."

Jupiter smiled and closed her eyes while hugging Nepgear again. "I'm home, sis."

(-)

In Lastation...

"...three hours." Histoire said as she finished explaining everything in detail to Noire.

"That's fine, I can wait that long." Noire took a deep breath as she turned off her communication array.

Walking out of her office, she made her way to the living room area.

"I'm surprised you're still here." Blanc said as she walked in, causing the others, who were in a four-way FPS game, to pause the game and Uni to look at her with worry.

"Nepgear's dealing with something important and can't meet for three hours." Noire answered. "I'm willing to wait before we meet."

"Well then..." Vert spoke up and held up her controller. "Would you like to play instead of me?"

"How generous and unlike you." Noire said as she took Vert's offer up and sat down next to Uni.

Vert said nothing as she walked to stand next to Blanc. In truth, she was worried that she wouldn't see her friend ever again after today as well. The Leanbox CPU wanted to think the best of Jupiter, that she had no ulterior motives. 'But if Nepgear decided to use her as a spy to gather information because she decided she wanted to restart the war...' Vert knew that there was no way for them to win if Nepgear really was preparing for such a tactic. Their military forces were a pale shadow of what they had been during the height of the Console Wars, but worst of all...

"You're thinking it too, aren't you?" Blanc said softly. "With our shares in their current condition, we wouldn't be able to win a confrontation against her."

"...I doubt that even if the three of us teamed up on her like we did against Purple Heart that the result would be the same." Not that Vert wanted that to happen, either way. "Tell me, Blanc, if the war restarted, do you think that your sisters could seriously fight against someone they consider a friend?"

Blanc was silent, which told Vert everything she needed to know. Neither of them wanted the wars to start up again either, the thought of Uni, Rom and Ram being out there and fighting to the death bothered them. Both CPUs looked at Noire and Uni with worry. The two sisters were sitting next to each other, with Uni leaning against Noire while they played together. The tension in both of their bodies were palatable.

The worst part was, everyone knew that it was possible that this was the last time the two could play games together.

Outside, dark clouds continued to form and cover the sky.

(-)

Meanwhile in Planeptune...

"Hello, Miss IF, Miss Compa." The doctor, a young man wearing a black suit with a white doctor's jacket over it in his early thirties with purple hair that went to his shoulders and yellow eyes smiled at the two. "Sorry for the wait."

"It's okay." Compa smiled at him while IF sat on the clinic table. "Everything looks so cool here."

"We do take pride in our advanced technology." The doctor smiled at her. "Now, Miss IF..." The doctor looked at the papers that the nurses had written up. "It says here that you're suffering from some sort of muscle and bone degeneracy?"

IF sighed and nodded. "For several years now. I've had doctors and healers from Lowee, Leanbox and Lastation all say they couldn't help me fully. The best they could do was slow it down."

The doctor nodded as he looked over the paperwork. "Very well. I hope you don't mind, but we'll need to do some tests. Deep tissue and bone scans of your leg and the rest of your body to see the extent of your injuries."

IF nodded. "That's fine. Just don't tell me that I have to be naked for them." She joked and tried to laugh but trailed off as the doctor didn't say anything. "...I do?"

"Don't worry, you'll have a privacy gown on, plus you won't need to remove your undergarments."

IF sighed and nodded. "Very well." So what if the doctors saw her naked? These doctors wouldn't be the first ones to see her naked, hell, Compa had to help her go to the bathroom for crying out loud, that was far more embarrassing than being seen naked by professionals. Besides, he said she could keep her panties on, which was more than she was expecting. Sliding her jacket off, she looked at the doctor. "Let's get this over with, the faster I get one of those gowns the faster I can get this over with."

The doctor nodded and pulled a privacy gown out of his inventory. "I'll give you some privacy so you can get into this, then we'll wheel you down to get the tests done."

The two girls nodded as the doctor left.

"Iffy, are you okay?"

IF nodded at Compa's question. "I'm just trying to avoid getting my hopes up. For all I know, this will just be another dead end and I'll be doomed to having my leg become worthless."

Compa said nothing as she helped IF strip down to her underwear and put the gown on.

(-)

Three hours later...

Histoire floated into the kitchen as Jupiter and Nepgear ate in comfortable silence, though Jupiter spiced things up by talking about dogoos that had become a problem. "Nepgear, it's been three hours."

Nepgear sighed and nodded as she finished eating the stew in her bowl. "Very well, contact Black Heart and tell her that I'll meet her in the airspace between the Basilicom and the border here in Planeptune. Contact the military to allow Black Heart that far in. I'll be there in ten minutes."

Histoire nodded and turned to leave, though she wondered why Jupiter was looking pale as a white Clyde.

After Histoire left, Jupiter looked at Nepgear as she got up. "Sis... Why is Black Heart coming?"

Nepgear shook her head. "I don't know, but as it's official CPU business, it would be remiss of me not to at least meet with her. I doubt she would be willing to meet if it wasn't important."

"Um..." Jupiter spoke up as she tried to get the beating of her heart to calm down. "Sis, do you think... Do you think that maybe the other CPUs might have changed since the war?"

Nepgear was silent for a moment as she looked at Jupiter, who was starting to cringe under her gaze. "I suppose anyone can change with time... Or because of someone." She gave Jupiter a soft look. "After all, I know that better than anyone." A flash of light and Lilac Heart was standing in front of Jupiter. "Just stay here, if she truly means to talk then nothing bad will happen."

Jupiter suddenly got up and hugged Lilac Heart tightly, surprising the stoic CPU. "Sis, I love you." Lilac Heart flinched as she heard those words, they made her feel good, but she didn't feel like she deserved them. "Please..." Jupiter let go and stepped back. "Just hear her out and don't shut her out."

Lilac Heart sighed and nodded before ruffling Jupiter's hair. "Very well, I can promise that much at least."

(-)

It took Lilac Heart less than five minutes to get to her destination, and that was mostly because she had taken her time, being wary as to why Black Heart would want to meet up. Above her, dark, gloomy clouds covered the sky as lightning started to flash between them while low amounts of thunder was heard in the distance.

"You're early." Black Heart's voice was heard as she hovered in mid-air not far from her.

"So are you." Lilac Heart said as she floated close to Black Heart with her gunblade drawn in front of her defensively, but she stayed far enough away in case the other CPU wished to engage in combat for whatever reason. "I'm surprised that you don't have your sister with you."

Black Heart gave her a grin. "This is a meeting between us CPUs, no need for our sisters to be here, am I right?"

Nepgear wondered why Black Heart was saying "we", as far as she knew no one but a very small few knew about Jupiter. "Were you that eager to meet with me?"

"I can't say that I am, even if it's good to know that you're still alive."

Lilac Heart narrowed her eyes, but didn't otherwise react to that. "Before we begin the discussion, might I ask if you know what happened in Leanbox the other day? Or do you not wish to sell your ally out?"

"I take it you're asking about that powerful explosion that even Blanc saw from her Basilicom?" Black Heart asked, getting a nod from Lilac Heart. "Apparently there was someone who managed to find a working monster transportation disk and used it to sneak in a spawning monster that nearly over-ran the city. The explosion was the result of a spell by Blanc's younger sisters having gone awry."

Nepgear narrowed her eyes as she heard that. "I see." Mentally she was screaming at herself for not ending those two when she first saw them months ago if they could do this. "I take it that this is a declaration of war then?"

Black Heart gave her a confused look before realizing something. "Oh! No!" She shook her head and waved her hands in front of her. "Not at all. In fact, I'm pretty sure that the twins will never use that spell again, not after it caused over 250 million credits worth of damage to Leanbox."

"If telling me that wasn't a preparation for a declaration of war, why are you here?"

The wind picked up at that moment, causing both CPUs to have their hair whip around violently. Sighing, Black Heart hovered over to Lilac Heart slowly. She held up her hands when she saw Lilac Heart pointing her gunblade her way. "Calm down, please! I wish to hand you something, nothing more." At least the winds weren't strong enough to disrupt what they were saying.

Lilac Heart narrowed her eyes but nodded. She kept her gunblade up and as Noire got close enough, she stretched her arm that was holding her gunblade and poked Black Heart in the chest. There was no power behind the poke, but it was enough to make Black Heart stop. Black Heart snapped her fingers and a small, square paper object appeared in her right hand. "What's that?"

"A photograph." Black Heart said while holding it up, its back facing Lilac Heart. "This is the purpose of the meeting."

"You want to give me a picture?" Lilac Heart gave her a flat stare. "The hell?"

"Nepgear, please," Black Heart sighed as Lilac Heart glared at her. "Please take this and look at it. This will tell both of us everything we need to know." She extended her arm but kept the back of the photograph facing Lilac Heart the whole time.

Lilac Heart didn't know why, but she pulled her gunblade back and floated close to Black Heart, taking the photo from her. For her part, Black Heart just hovered there, looking completely relaxed and almost expectant. Turning the photo over, Lilac Heart took one look at it and her eyes widened while her face went pale and her pupils shrank as she started to tremble. "W...What the..?!"

The image was of Uni, Jupiter, Rom and Ram sleeping on the couch in Lowee that Blanc had taken.

"What the?" Lilac Heart had an absolutely horrified look on her face as she looked at Black Heart, who was giving her a gentle look of understanding.

"You didn't know, did you?"

Internally, Lilac Heart was seething. Her anger was going in all sorts of directions. 'Histoire and Anonydeath, they both knew, didn't they? Jupiter, what the hell?!'

Black Heart watched as Lilac Heart took a deep breath and after a moment her face had returned back to being calm. Internally, Black Heart envied Lilac Heart's ability to reign her emotions in so quickly, but she knew what the cost was. "It only came to my attention today that Jupiter is your sister, your CPU Candidate. Until that information came out, none of us had any idea who she really was."

"I want you to know something, Black Heart," Lilac Heart began, her voice somewhat unsteady. "She did this without my permission or knowledge."

"I see," Black Heart nodded. "And I want you to know that I'm actually relieved to hear that. The others started to freak out at the idea of you preparing to launch an invasion."

Lilac Heart narrowed her eyes. "I see. I thank you for this information, Black Heart, please leave now. I have to go and deal with this."

"Wait!" Black Heart held her hand out as Lilac Heart turned around. "Please! Listen to me."

"I have nothing more to say to you. But I thank you, for looking after my sister, even if you didn't know who she was." Looking over her shoulder, Lilac Heart gave Black Heart a cold look. "What do you want?"

"...Huh?"

"You're within your rights to request anything of me as a member of my nation, especially since it's my sister, was in your nations and you caught her. What is it you want?"

"...Nothing." Black Heart said to her. "Quite frankly, I'm..."

"If there's nothing you want, then leave. You have ten minutes, if you're not gone by then you'll be under fire and I'll return ready to fight." Lilac Heart spun and left at high speeds for her Basilicom, she had a CPU Candidate to discipline.

Black Heart sighed as she watched Lilac Heart fly off. Looking around, she sighed again. 'Again, I failed, didn't I?'

She was alive, she had that going for her at least. Turning around, she flew back to her Basilicom. As thunder and lightning picked up and rain started to fall, Black Heart laughed softly. The rain suited her mood perfectly.

'Still...' She looked at the clouds with some worry. 'Even though the sun's still out, it's almost dark as night.'

(-)

Jupiter shivered for several reasons. The first was that the wind that was blowing across Planeptune was rather strong at that moment while rain came down hard outside. The reason she knew that was because of the open door to the balcony. The second reason she shivered was that she felt she was in trouble. And the third reason she was shivering was because her sister was still in HDD form and glaring at her. "Um, sis..." She didn't know what to say, with the way the sky was dark, she could have sworn her sister's eyes were glowing.

Lilac Heart said nothing and tossed something to Jupiter. It was a picture and Jupiter gulped as she saw the image of her, Uni, Rom and Ram cuddling on the couch together.

Suddenly she understood why her sister was glaring at her. "Sis..."

"Why did you go into the other nations without permission?" Lilac Heart asked before shaking her head. "No, scratch that. Why the hell would you bother going into the other nations?"

"But sis! They aren't..." She gulped when Lilac Heart held up a hand.

"Doesn't matter, does it? We're still at war with them."

"But they're not..." Jupiter tried to get a word in edge-wise, but stopped as the glare intensified.

"Now I need to send a letter of apology to all the nations and pull troops away from the border to show that I have no intention of launching an invasion. Do you have any idea just what kind of problems your little stunt just caused?" Lilac Heart asked while lightning flashed outside, followed by a loud crash of thunder, the lightning seemed to cause the room to get darker just by existing. "Just so you know, you're grounded. For the next week, you're to remain in your room, except to do official Goddess duties and use the bathroom. You are likewise forbidden from leaving the Basilicom for a year."

"But sis, I..."

"Enough. I'll talk to you more some later." She walked past her sister, who was looking stunned at her. "...Jupiter, I'm highly disappointed in you."

Jupiter gasped and fell to her butt as she trembled while Lilac Heart turned back to Nepgear after leaving the room. Those words, Nepgear being disappointed in her, cut her worse than any attack could ever hope to.

Outside of the living quarters, Histoire floated in front of Nepgear. "We need to talk."

Nepgear nodded. "Fine, my office." She walked to her office with Histoire floating after her. After getting inside, she shut the door and looked at Histoire. "Well?"

"Well, what?" Histoire asked, knowing that things weren't going to get better, but they had to happen.

"You knew, didn't you?" Nepgear asked Histoire. "You knew that Jupiter was going around in the other countries and you kept it a secret from me."

Histoire was silent for a moment before nodding. "Yes."

"Dammit, Histoire! Why?" Nepgear was trembling, trying to keep her anger in check so she didn't say or do something she would regret.

"Nepgear, Jupiter needs to know what life in Gamindustri is like. She needs to travel the world. She needs to interact with people." Histoire shot back. "In fact, your fear, hatred and paranoia has only served to hinder her growth."

"Histoire..." Nepgear was twitching, trying not to growl. "You know that I have a damn good reason why I..."

"You do not! If anything, your actions are unbecoming of a proper CPU." There was a rumble of thunder in the distance as the tension in the air rapidly got thicker as the two looked at each other harshly. "If you're going to be ruled by such negative emotions you will only end up being a failure of a CPU!"

There was a crack in the air as lightning flashed and Histoire's eyes widened as she realized what she said. Gasping, she slapped her hands over her mouth. 'What the hell did I...'

Nepgear's eyes were wide and she took a step back. "...Is that what you really think?" She whispered, tears welling up in her eyes as she spun and ran out of the room.

Histoire watched her go, tears falling out of her own eyes. 'Stupid! STUPID! You knew she's emotionally fragile! Why the HELL would you say that to her?!'

Rain and lightning filled the skies around Planeptune in the background, making the sky seem even darker than it was at night.

(-)

Meanwhile in Lastation...

"Sis!" Uni practically cried as Black Heart, soaked from the rain, landed on her balcony and turned back to Noire after entering her office. "You're alive and..." Uni didn't bother to stop herself, she launched herself at Noire and glomped her elder sister, crying into Noire's chest as she trembled. "UWAAAAH! I thought you were dead and weren't coming home ever again!"

Noire hugged her back, tears falling out of her eyes. "I'm home, Uni. I'm sorry for scaring you."

Not far away, Vert and Blanc both smiled softly, glad that they didn't lose their friend.

(-)

Back in Planeptune...

Histoire sighed as she entered Jupiter's room. The young girl was sitting on her bed, looking absolutely dejected. "Jupiter..."

"Why?" She sniffled, trying to hold her feelings in. "Why can't sis be friends with them?"

Histoire sighed and shook her head. "It's my fault." Jupiter looked at the dejected tome. "I... Please understand. When I became the oracle of Planeptune, it was in terrible shape. The previous CPU was dead and Nepgear had not gone through the coronation to become a CPU yet. I knew she was young, but everyone spoke highly of her work abilities. So I pushed for her to become the CPU. I never gave her time to grieve over her sister's death, and with how far behind we were with work back then I never gave her time off either. By the time I realized what I did to her, it was too late and Nepgear had become what you know her as. I've talked to the other CPUs over the years, which is why I have tried to convince Nepgear to make true peace with them. And when I mentioned what I did to raise her to be a fine CPU... They all get upset at me."

"...They do?"

Histoire nodded. "Yes. Vert, that is, Green Heart chides me saying that because I never let Nepgear grieve or take days off that she became cold hearted."

"Sis isn't cold hearted, she's just... Awkward." Jupiter smiled at her softly. "But you can..."

"I've tried." Histoire bowed her head and trembled as tears leaked out of her eyes. "Goddess knows that I've tried to get her to take days off, to play games, to just enjoy herself for once. I know you have too, but she keeps... Just pushing it away."

"...Sis told me that the last thing she was told by the previous CPU was that sometimes CPUs have to harden their hearts and do what's needed for everyone, even if it makes you want to cry."

Histoire nodded. "Yes. But a CPU is supposed to be caring and loving as well. This... This is my fault. If I had just looked at what I was doing to her, if I had just stopped and let her have fun, let her play, let her grieve over her loss... Maybe that bright and sunny girl that I was told she was back when she was a candidate would still be here."

Jupiter had nothing to say. She looked out the window of her room as the rain came down hard. 'Someone... Help sis... Please! Anyone! She really needs help! Please!' Jupiter desperately thought, tears falling out of her eyes as she softly cried while Histoire looked on, a defeated, dejected look on her face as she tried to comfort the CPU Candidate.

The sad irony of a Goddess praying to a higher power for help was lost on Jupiter.

(-)

Nepgear sighed as she laid on her bed. She wasn't used to going to bed early, but she knew she'd never get any work done, and she especially couldn't work when it rained. "Dang it, Jupiter, you just had to go and do that, didn't you? 'Oh hey! I got a great idea! I'll just set off an international crisis and visit the other nations without permission! What could possibly go wrong!?' Dammit, WHY didn't you think things through first?!" Nepgear practically screamed in anger. She was going to have to write up a letter of apology in the morning, she would need to find out just what her sister did in the other nations and what actions would be needed to keep things from getting out of control. Looking to the side, she lifted up the blanket where she kept her stuffed Neptune doll.

...Except that it wasn't where she had left it. Neither was Purple Heart.

Nepgear was confused by their absence. Sure, it had been a bit since she last held them, but they should be under the blankets. "Where did they go?"

"Where did what go?" A new voice spoke up and Nepgear yelped and spun around, only to run face first into a pair of big boobs.

"Oww! I really should start wearing a bra." The voice said and Nepgear pulled back and her eyes widened tremendously while her face paled. "Oh hey! You're this world's Nepgear!"

The girl was taller than she remembered, and bustier, the outfit was a different color and the hair was longer...

But that face, those eyes, that hair color, that voice...

"Nep...Tune?" Nepgear trembled, her eyes were quickly filling with unshed tears and she started to sniffle as the other girl smiled at her.

"Yep. This Nep is known as Neptune!" Neptune smiled at Nepgear while putting two fingers against her head in a V-shape before blinking at the confused, trembling look on Nepgear's face. "Nepgear?"

"Nep... Neptune..? Is... Is it really you?" Nepgear's voice was cracking as tears started to fall from her eyes.

Neptune nodded and smiled at her. "Nep to ground control, we have a confused Nepgear here!" The next thing that Neptune knew, she was tackled to the floor as Nepgear clung to her, sobbing loudly while her body shook violently. "Nepgear?" When Nepgear just cried and sobbed, Neptune sighed and hugged her, rubbing her back. "It's okay, Nepgear, Neptune's here for you."

Nepgear continued to cry as Neptune held her and whispered things to her, she wasn't paying attention to what was being said and Nepgear quite frankly didn't care if she was hallucinating, or if she was dreaming because she fell asleep as soon as she landed on her bed, or if this was some sort of shape shifting demon from the Netherworld.

All she cared about was that Neptune was here and she was able to hug her sister once more.

It was all she ever wanted in life, to be able to have Neptune back, just one more time.


	23. Chapter 18

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

* * *

It was more than an hour later, after Nepgear had stopped bawling her eyes out, as she laid on Neptune, emotionally drained, that Nepgear began to realize a few important things. One, this couldn't be Neptune, Neptune didn't have boobs this big in her human from! That obviously meant that two, she was bawling and embarrassing herself in front of some stranger, whom she was currently hugging, which meant that three, some stranger had managed to not only get into the Basilicom without her knowing, but also had snuck into her room and gotten close enough for Nepgear to discover that four, said stranger didn't wear anything under her black hooded parka other than a pair of blue striped panties.

Nepgear only found this out because she had, in her bout of crying her heart and soul out, accidentally unzipped the hoodie completely and let it flop onto the floor, exposing everything that the stranger was wearing, or rather, not wearing under the hoodie. 'Her boobs are big.' She shook her head, wondering why she was staring at them.

"You know..." The stranger with her sister's face and voice looked at her with an embarrassed expression on her face. "I don't mind if cute girls want to do lewd things to me, but I usually make them take me out on a couple of dates first. But you're my sister, so it's a bit awkward." Sure, Nepgear was sexy and cute, but Neptune saw her as a little sister. "Oh, wait! Don't tell me! You and tiny me have this weird incestual relationship going on in this dimension, right?" Neptune smiled awkwardly at that. "Well, that explains a lot, I guess I could go along with it."

"What?" Nepgear's eyes widened and her face turned scarlet as she jumped up and off of Neptune. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to..."

"Hey, it's okay." Neptune giggled and sat up before closing her parka hoodie and zipping up, though she didn't zip all the way up as she let the top of her cleavage be seen. "I'm just surprised that my sister would want to do lewd things to me is all. I could see the other CPUs or their sisters doing lewd things to me, that's not so weird, but it's weird when you do it." She cupped her chin and looked off to the side in wonder. "Hmm, if Tiny Me did lewd things with me, would that be incest or masturbation?"

"Um..." Nepgear wasn't sure how to respond to that.

"Then again, I don't really have a sister." Neptune pouted at that. "Oh! I guess you're confused. Sorry." Neptune rubbed the back of her head and giggled. "I'm a Neptune from a dimension where I was born human and not as a CPU. Sadly, my parents never had another kid, or if they did, it was after I left home."

"...So you are Neptune?" Nepgear asked softly, getting a nod from Neptune.

"Yep yep!" Neptune smiled brightly at Nepgear. "This Nep is a Neptune who is an inter-dimensional bug catcher, not a CPU. I like finding interesting and rare bugs and putting them in my Nep-note!"

"...But there are no bugs in here." Nepgear HOPED there weren't any bugs at least.

"I know!" Neptune pouted and Nepgear swore that was the cutest thing she had seen in ages. "I was at Tiny Me and her sister's Basilicom back in the Hyper Dimension and Crostie wanted some milk, so I gave her some, but then she got sick later..."

"You jerk!" A new voice spoke up and Nepgear's eyes widened as she recognized that voice. "That milk was expired!"

Neptune pulled out a notebook and opened it up to a page where a black butterfly was trapped inside. "Well, I tried to warn you, Crostie, but you were the one who insisted on having the milk."

"You could have tried harder!"

"What the goodness? Croire?!" Nepgear gasped and got up in shock. "Is that you?"

"Huh? Oh, it's Nepgear. Can you let me out? I'm so sick right now that if I tried to open a portal I'd end up in the T-dimension and trust me, I don't want to go there again. Please? I won't run."

"I don't know, Crostie..." Neptune trailed off.

"Can I see her, please?" Nepgear asked Neptune, who looked at the nearly desperate look on Nepgear's face and nodded.

After removing the pins and letting Croire out of the Nep-note, Neptune gave Croire a stern look. "You behave, Crostie."

Croire looked absolutely miserable and gave Neptune a flat look. "Urgh, right now I feel like dying." She turned to look at Nepgear and waved. "Hey," the short haired tome greeted Nepgear. "It's been awhile, hasn't it?"

"You know Crostie?" Neptune asked Nepgear, who nodded.

"Yes, just over ten years ago..." Nepgear sighed, her shoulders slumping as though a bunch of weight was on them, "my sister, my Neptune... She was killed by the other CPUs... Shortly afterwords Croire showed up and gave me a cursed sword and pointed me at the one responsible for killing you, um, my Neptune..."

"...Nepgear..." Neptune stood up and grabbed Nepgear and pulled her into another hug. "Go on, keep talking, big sister Nep will listen." She started to rock back and forth while rubbing Nepgear's back, causing the CPU to start sniffling as she buried her face into Neptune's chest.

"It hurts... I hurt so much..." Nepgear softly sobbed as her body shook. "I feel so alone."

"Don't you have a Histoire here?" Croire asked, getting a nod from Nepgear. "Then you're not alone, are you?"

"She's not..." Nepgear sniffled as Neptune continued to hold her. "We're not close... We're not friends." She trembled and buried her face against Neptune's chest. "I... I wanted this more than anything else in my life. I..." Nepgear's tears started flowing freely from her eyes again. "I wanted to take that sword and kill myself with it... So many times."

"Stop that!" Neptune grabbed her shoulders and pushed her away, giving the sad, confused and hurt Nepgear a stern look. "You have no reason to talk like that, ever! I know Tiny Me! I know that she would NEVER want you to talk like that."

Nepgear sniffled, her lips quivering. "I... It hurts so much, Neptune... Every day you're gone... It hurts more than the last."

Croire tilted her head. "Are you completely alone though? Isn't there anyone around for you?"

Suddenly Nepgear's face showed intense amounts of shame as she looked down. "I... I'm a horrible big sister."

"Huh?!" Neptune was surprised. "My little sister has a little sister?"

Croire smirked as she hovered there, though she still looked queasy. "I was wondering why there was another CPU signature in the building."

"So who's the newest Nepsister?" Neptune asked Nepgear, who looked up, a very tired and sad look on her face.

"Jupiter... I... I'm horrible. I just grounded her for running off to the other nations without my permission."

Neptune was confused, as was Croire. "Huh? What the nep?! Why would you do that?"

Nepgear lowered her head in shame. "I was scared. I lost you... I lost you because of the other CPUs, then Jupiter ran off into the other nations. If she was hurt or dead... I..."

"That settles it then!" Neptune jumped to her feet, surprising Nepgear. "You look like you're over-stressed and over-worked!" Nepgear looked at her in confusion. "Seriously, Nepgear, you look like you're almost twenty years older than me and... Oh!" Neptune's eyes widened and she suddenly dropped to her knees and crawled under Nepgear's bed for a moment. "AH!" She pushed herself out and held in her hands the Neptune and Purple Heart plushies, causing Nepgear to gasp. "Sorry about that, when I got here, I landed on the bed and was wondering what was going on when I saw the plushies. I thought they were cute, then I heard the door open, so I threw them at the bed and jumped behind the curtain. I was going to sneak out when I saw you."

Nepgear gently took the plushies from Neptune and put them back on the bed. "They...They're all I had of you, Neptune..." Sure, this wasn't HER Neptune, but she was still Neptune, and Nepgear's emotions were swirling, storming, raging, but at the center of it all, she felt more happiness than she had in a good long time.

"That settles it!" Neptune grabbed Nepgear's arm and pulled her to her feet and noticed that this Nepgear was a little taller than the Nepgear she knew personally. "You're coming with me."

"Huh?" Nepgear blinked as Neptune grabbed Croire with her other hand and pulled them both towards the door. "What's going on?"

"Hey!" Croire grumbled, feeling her stomach doing backflips from that. "What's going on?"

Neptune smiled. "Simple! Me, Nepgear and Nepgear's sister, or as Tiny Me would say "me, Nep Jr. and Nep the Third", are all going to spend time as a family and have fun today. Now which way is her room?"

"The other way." Nepgear pointed behind her as Neptune stopped, turned around and ran that way, yanking Nepgear behind her. "Waaaaaait!"

"Nope! No time! We're having family time today!"

Had anyone looked outside, they would have seen the rain stopping and the clouds clearing up, revealing clear and sunny skies.

(-)

In her room, Jupiter was curled under the blankets on her bed, sniffling as she tried to get some sleep. 'Maybe I can sleep the whole week away?' It would be less painful than being awake that whole time and...

Suddenly the door burst open and Jupiter let out a yelp and sat up, fully expecting her sister to be there and be mad at her.

She gawked as she saw her sister was there, yes, but so was someone who looked like her sister who was wearing a black zip-up hoodie who had long, pink hair and similarily colored eyes who was holding onto Nepgear with one hand and her other hand had a fairy that looked like Histoire, just dark skinned and shorter hair. "Sis, what's going on?"

"Oh wow! You look like Tiny Me, but you don't sound like her, and your hair is slightly darker than hers, plus it's not the same cut." The stranger said, causing Jupiter to gawk at her. "Okay, Crostie, gunna let you go here."

"I couldn't run away even if I wanted to." The tome muttered, looking a bit sick.

"Come on!" The stranger smiled at her and waved her hand. "Come with us! We're going to spend time in the living room."

"...I'm grounded." Jupiter wanted to go, but she knew that if she didn't listen to Nepgear that she would be in even worse trouble.

"Nope!" The stranger shook her head. "As Nepgear's older sister, I have senority and priority and I say you're ungrounded!"

"HUH?!" Jupiter's eyes widened. "What? Sis? What's..."

Nepgear looked a bit embarrassed, but nodded. "This is Neptune... My... No, OUR older sister."

"HUH?!" Jupiter gawked, confusion written on her face.

(-)

As she sat in the living room with Nepgear and Croire, as the fairy was called, Jupiter slowly nodded while Neptune messed around with the television and console. "So she's our sister, but she's from another dimension?"

"Yes." Nepgear nodded and Jupiter noticed something important, now that she was a bit more calm and thinking more rationally.

Nepgear had tear tracks down her cheeks, her eyes were red and her cheeks puffy from obvious crying, but Jupiter could also see that her sister looked... Happier, more relaxed and calmer than Jupiter had ever seen her before. Sure, Nepgear didn't seem too different than normal, but there was no underlying sense of tension, Nepgear's eyes were soft and her face didn't look like it was made out of stone.

"Man, you don't have too many games, huh?" Neptune said as she booted up the console and turned the television on. "And when was the last time you played anything?"

"...Almost a decade ago." Nepgear admitted as Neptune gawked at her. "I was busy."

"Well, not for the rest of today or tomorrow you're not." Neptune said as she dusted off the controllers and plopped her butt on the couch in between the two sisters. "So what's this Planeptune Purple Pulverizer game?"

"It's a Mascot game that's a crowd control beat-em up game." Nepgear answered. "It's... Kind of old, I haven't had time to play any games in forever."

Jupiter wasn't sure if she should be happy or not. Looking at Nepgear, she saw something she never thought she'd EVER see...

...The corners of Nepgear's lips were tugging upwards softly.

Suddenly it didn't matter what she felt, the fact that her big sister was so happy made her happy. "Um, Neptune..." Her eldest sister looked at her in confusion as Jupiter suddenly hugged her and nuzzled her breasts. "Thank you."

Neptune and Nepgear had identical confused looks on their faces as they wondered why Jupiter was doing that.

(-)

As the hours crept on, Croire sat on a nearby bookshelf and fought the urge to fall asleep out of boredom. The game itself wasn't anything special, but as she watched the looks of pure bliss on the small one, Jupiter, Croire reminded herself and the look of... If Croire had to place it, she would say it was contentment, on Nepgear's face, plus the happiness on Neptune's face, she decided it was kind of worth it. 'Not like I can do much right now anyway.' Her stomach was still upset from the expired milk. Part of her wondered if she did slip away, at least for awhile, if Neptune would be upset at her or not. "You know, Neptune, you should probably give the others a call to let them know that you're okay."

Suddenly Neptune perked up. "Hey yeah! That's right! There's a Histy here, right? We can just give her the dimensional coordinates to the Hyper Dimension and call Tiny Me and let her know that I'm okay."

Nepgear looked stunned at that. "...Can I talk to her too?"

"Won't it take Histoire three hours? It'll be kind of late, don't you think?" Jupiter asked, causing Nepgear to sigh. "Sorry, sis."

"Nah, it's fine, Tiny Me won't mind in the slightest!" Neptune smiled as she stood up and stretched. "Come on! Where's Histy?"

"I'll call her." Nepgear said as she pulled out her phone and dialed a number. After waiting thirty seconds, she spoke as the phone was picked up. "Hello, Histoire. Could you come to the living room? Thank you."

Three minutes later, Histoire floated into the living room, wondering why Nepgear had called her into that room. 'After all, it's never used and with the rain outside, I know she wouldn't do any work in her office, so...' Histoire's thoughts trailed off as she saw Nepgear, whom she expected, Jupiter, whom she didn't expect, a tome with a dark-skinned fairy on top of it on a bookshelf and a girl who was a little taller than Nepgear wearing a black hooded parka. "...What's going on?" The last two were a complete mystery to her.

A few minutes later...

"So..." Histoire looked at Neptune. "You're Neptune from another dimension then?"

"Yep yep!" Neptune grinned at her. "This Nep is just that."

"I see..." Histoire looked at Nepgear and noticed, for the first time in ages, the girl looked a lot more calm than she had looked in years. "I warmly welcome you to this dimension's Planeptune then."

"Hey!" The dark skinned fairy snapped suddenly, "Histoire. Can you call the Hyper Dimension already? I've got the Dimensional Coordinates for you if you need them."

"I'm sorry, but who are..."

"I'm Croire. A tome that travels dimensions and records stuff." Croire had an annoyed look on her face. "And I have a lot of recordings on what it's like to transverse dimensional space when you've got an upset stomach from food poisoning."

"Come on, Crostie! Again, I tried to tell you that the milk was expired, but you wanted it." Neptune huffed and crossed her arms over her chest.

As the two started to argue over food and stuff, Histoire found herself smiling softly. Even if this Neptune wasn't the Neptune that was Nepgear's elder sister, it seemed that she was livening up the entire Basilicom just from being there.

For the first time in years, Histoire felt that there was hope for Nepgear.

(-)

Meanwhile...

"Gee hee hee hee..." A high-pitched giggle was heard as a woman strolled through the basement of the Basilicom. "Amazing, simply amazing, I never would have thought I could feel like this again."

Said woman walked through the basement, ignoring everything as she walked to the back. Snorting as she saw the wall in front of her, she snapped her fingers and the wall crumbled, revealing a small, hidden room.

In the center was a purple sword with a black hilt that glowed ominously.

The woman held up her hand and the sword disappeared in a black flash before reappearing in her outstretched hand. "Gee hee hee hee... To think that information was correct."

Suddenly the woman's left eye became duller in color as her hair darkened. "Of course it was, you think I wouldn't know about this place? I admit, I never knew about this sword, but I could feel its power."

Laughing, the woman swung the sword down before she disappeared. "Soon... Soon Gamindustri will feel our revenge."

* * *

So if you're trying to figure out how mysterious person (who you probably all guessed) is talking with two people there in the same body, look up Baron Ashura from Mazinger Z. When the camera focuses on the male half, that voice is the only one heard, when the camera focuses on the female half, you only hear the female voice. When you see both sides at the same time, both voices are heard. That's what's going on here.

* * *

"Welcome to Nepstation, I'm your host Big Neptune and..."

"...I'm Nepgear. Why'd you introduce yourself as Big Neptune?"

"So the readers know that I'm not Tiny Me."

"Oh. Well, thank you so much for showing up."

"No problem. Anyway, WAGH!"

"What the?!"

"Oww, I slipped on the floor and fell on my butt!"

"...Why is there milk on the floor?"

"...Crostie, did you..?"

"You gave me spoiled milk! Feel my revenge!"

"Oww, Nepgear, will you do the preview while I find a tiny fly swatter and spank Crostie?"

"Sure."

"Wait, what?!"

"Coming up next, beware the shy ones, rampaging tentacle monsters and fun baths shall happen. ...Wait, is all that really going to happen?"

"I'm not sure, the author sometimes lies to us."

*SWAT* *SWAT* *SWAT*

"OWW! STOP SPANKING, OWW! ME! THAT HURTS!"

"That's all the time we have. This is Nepgear..."

"...And Big Neptune..."

"And, OWW! DAMMIT! MY BUTT HURTS! Croire! Signing off!"

"Good thing this isn't canon, otherwise we'd have to explain this later."


	24. Chapter 19

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

Just a reminder that I wrote this before the OVA, Brave Neptunia or any other future games came out.

* * *

Meanwhile in Lastation...

"So..." Blanc started as she, Rom, Ram, Vert, Noire and Uni sat around the table to eat some food that Noire had cooked up. "You ready to talk now?"

Noire nodded, letting out a slow sigh. "Sorry, I needed to get my thoughts in order, I had so much adrenaline in my system that I would have just been a jittery mess."

"That's fine." Vert smiled at Noire. "The fact that you're still alive is a great relief to all of us." She saw Uni looking at Noire with a relieved look on her face out of the corner of her eye.

"Alright, first thing I should say..." Noire looked at Uni. "I'm sorry." Uni looked at her in confusion. "For making you worried, for suspecting your friend." Uni nodded at her and Noire looked at the others. "As for an invasion, we can relax on that front. It seems like Jupiter snuck out of Planeptune without Nepgear's knowledge or consent."

"You sure you can believe her?" Blanc asked, a serious expression on her face. "You know how she is at controlling her emotions. She probably put up a..."

"STOP!" A voice that shocked everyone yelled as Rom stood up, glaring everyone, her eyes white, blank and full of anger. "Stop being meanies to Miss Jupiter! She's a good person!"

"But her sister..." Blanc started, only to falter at Rom's angry look. "Rom?"

"She's scared and sad!" Rom trembled. "You killed her big sister! None of you said you were sorry! None of you tried to help her! Of course she's mad!" Rom took a deep breath as the others stared at her. "But Miss Jupiter is a good person! She's lots of fun and was really nice to all of us and she liked playing games. If her sister was a big meanie then she wouldn't be like that, right?"

"Yeah." Uni nodded. "Jupiter felt really bad when she thought she was playing with my feelings. She looked really troubled about stuff. I think it was because she was hiding who she was."

"She gave me a piggy back ride and ran really fast down the street and we even played in the pool together." Ram piped up.

"That's fine, but..." Blanc began again.

Rom slammed her hands on the table, the normally shy girl was in a very angry mood and proved that while she hesitated around new people, she was very much Blanc's sister as her face was covered in shade and a red glow came to her eyes. "But what? You thought she was a good person too! Otherwise you wouldn't have had us all go to Leanbox to have Miss Vert, Miss IF and Miss Compa show Miss Jupiter that CPUs are good people. And Miss Jupiter even defended you, sis, from that big dummy with the camera."

Blanc looked at the her sisters, then at Uni and sighed, slumping. "You brats, I really can't win against you, can I?" For some reason, she didn't look too upset about it.

At that moment, Rom's face turned back to normal and she looked down shyly. "I'm sorry, but Miss Jupiter is..."

"It's okay, Rom." Blanc answered her and looked at her hands. "I guess... It's just so hard. I guess you three don't really know her sister like we do. But Nepgear, that is Lilac Heart..."

"All we've done is make excuses." Vert interrupted as she thought about things. "Excuses as to why we didn't go see Nepgear after the Console Wars ended. Excuses as to why we didn't try harder to meet with her outside of emergencies. Excuses as to why we didn't try to fix our mistake. If we had spent less time making excuses and more time trying to make amends, things would be different now, I'm sure."

"So what should we do now?" Noire asked, open to ideas.

"You're being dummies." Rom spoke up. "Can't you meet with Miss Jupiter and Miss Lilac Heart and talk to them?"

"She's too paranoid to leave her nation." Blanc answered.

"Then why not ask to meet her in Planeptune?" Ram asked. "Aren't you supposed to be at your strongest in your home nation?"

"That..." Vert trailed off as she looked at the candidates. "You know, you three are right. It's beyond time we started to make amends for the wrong-doings we did to Nepgear and Planeptune."

The Candidates eyes started to light up in happiness.

"Let's go in a few days. A week maybe?" Noire suggested. "That will give her enough time to calm down over this and we can request a face-to-face meeting at her Basilicom."

"I think that's acceptable." Vert said, nodding.

"How come you three couldn't do this sooner?" Uni asked, confusion in her voice as the three CPUs all looked at each other shamefully. "I don't know if it'll help, but I want to see Jupiter again."

"Uh huh." Rom nodded. "She's nice."

"And maybe if you three big dummies make friends with her sister, we can all go see Planeptune too!" Ram grinned.

"Don't get your hopes up." Blanc muttered, knowing that Nepgear was stubborn, but then again, she had no reason not to be.

(-)

Back in Planeptune...

"Well, doc..?" IF began as she sat in the waiting room again. After a few hours of going through every test imaginable and dealing with no less than four sudden flare-ups of pain, three of them were caused by the doctors intentionally as they had to see what her nerves looked like when stimulated, IF could say that she was both exhausted and wary that she was going to have more bad news.

"Well, I've got bad news for you," the doctor began and IF sighed, slumping as she knew what that was going to be, "and good news." The purple-haired doctor hid a smile as IF suddenly perked up and looked at him in wonder.

"...Doctor, how come you led with the fact there was bad news?" Compa asked, a pout on her face. "Shouldn't you lead with the fact you have good news?"

"Well, in this case, the bad news is that we can't begin treatment until between seven and nine tonight." The man's yellow eyes glinted in the light for some reason.

"Uh..." Both Compa and IF looked at the doctor in confusion.

"It takes several hours to get the regeneration tanks set up, filled with the gel and properly adjusted after all. Which leads to some mixed news, with the injuries and other stuff you've sustained and how long it's been, it will take between twelve and eighteen hours to fully fix."

IF's eyes suddenly lit up. "...Wait, fully fix? You can fix this?"

"Yep." The doctor nodded at her. "The tests were for us to make sure that there wasn't anything else wrong. Turns out that you have quite a bevy of health issues that will show up before you're thirty five at the present time. So, don't worry, by the time you get out of the regeneration tank, you'll be completely fighting fit." The doctor smiled as IF teared up and started sniffling. "Well, if you'd like, we can put you in a hospital room until it's time for you to get put in the tank."

IF nodded and Compa looked at the doctor in thanks. "Um, doctor, what's in the tank anyway?"

"It's a gel-like solution that takes time to be mixed." The doctor answered her. "I hope you don't mind me not telling you everything, it's strictly confidential, you see." Compa nodded, understanding. "But I will tell you this Miss IF, you're going to need a shower after you get out. That is, if you don't want to smell like Aloe Vera."

"Is that all the stuff..." IF began, getting a shake from the doctor.

"No, but it was determined that mixing in Aloe Vera didn't cause any harm to the patient, kept their skin from drying up and smelled a lot better than what it did before." The doctor chuckled softly. "That was actually Lady Lilac Heart's suggestion. She said something about it's better to smell like Aloe Vera than what it was before."

"Did it stink?" Compa asked, getting a shrug from the doctor.

"A bit, it wasn't like it smelled like rotten garbage or anything, but it wasn't pleasant."

"Oh! I bet it smelled like someone let out a really smelly fart in a packed elevator when no one can get out." Compa said, her eyes white and blank as she recalled that horrible experience.

"...That's... Not entirely inaccurate." The doctor chuckled softly. "You can see why our Goddess wanted a less smelly odor for the tanks." Both IF and Compa nodded. "Anyway, even if we had it ready now, I'd prefer to wait to start until at least seven as it will take at least twelve hours. Unless you feel like being in gel most of the day and getting out at two in the morning."

IF shook her head. "Um... Is it cold?"

"Extremely..." The doctor trailed off as his eyes glinted in amusement, "about six or so years ago. We've gotten it so that it feels like you're in a warm swimming pool."

IF let out a sigh of relief. "You're doing that on purpose, aren't you?"

The doctor laughed nodded. "Guilty as charged, I'm afraid. I always find that if you give your patients the illusion that everything is bad they feel much better when they find out that it's actually really good."

Compa smiled at IF, who was fighting the urge to cry as she smiled. "Doctor, can we get to the hospital room now?"

"Sure." The doctor smiled at her. "I'll get a nurse to lead you to your room."

Both Compa and IF smiled as the doctor left. "Iffy! Lady Vert was right."

IF looked down and sniffled, pure joy on her face. "I... I'll be able to walk again. Before we go, I'd like to go see Lady Lilac Heart and thank her for letting me come to Planeptune."

Compa smiled and nodded, she wanted to thank Lilac Heart as well after all.

(-)

"...and that's when I walked into the sauna and found Nepgear and Uni passed out from heat exhaustion because they were doing some silly bet with each other. I got them out and poured cool water on them so they could recover." Neptune finished her story about one of the sillier moments that she had with Nepgear in the Hyper Dimension. She looked over at Croire, who had fallen asleep during the story and was curled up on her book.

Jupiter started laughing all of a sudden. "Wow, sis! I guess some things are common across dimensions, huh?" Listening to her eldest sister for the past couple of hours had been a real treat.

Nepgear gave Jupiter a confused look while Histoire giggled while making a call to the Hyper Dimension. "I have no idea what you're talking about, but it sounds like the me of that world is pretty stubborn."

"Nah," Neptune grinned at Nepgear. "Tiny Me's little sister is really straight forward, earnest and steadfast. I mean, sure, she can get stubborn about some things, like when she stayed behind in the Zero Dimension to help Uzume out."

"Who's Uzume?" Nepgear asked.

"She's..." Neptune trailed off as Histoire suddenly lit up and a projection went across the wall. "Ah! I'll tell you later."

A Histoire popped up on the wall, surprising Jupiter and Nepgear. The Histoire doing the projection smiled at her counterpart. "Hello, you are the Histoire of the Hyper Dimension, yes?"

"Indeed I am." The Histoire there smiled. "May I have the reason for this call?"

"Hey! Histy!" Neptune smiled as she walked in front of the projection and waved, causing Histoire's eyes to widen.

"Ah! Neptune. Neptune, Nepgear and Uzume were wondering what happened to you after you disappeared all of a sudden after breakfast. I'm glad you're okay."

"Yeah, Crostie shouldn't have expired milk." Neptune giggled and rubbed the back of her head. "Hey! Is Tiny Me there?"

"Huh?" Histoire blinked and slowly nodded. "Yes, and doing work for once." She muttered darkly at that. "Should I get her?" When Neptune nodded, she floated off for a moment. "Neptune! You have a call. It's from your other self."

A moment later a young looking girl who looked to be about the same age as Jupiter popped up. "Oh hey! It's Big Me! Are you okay? Darksty didn't send you to any of those lewd dimensions did she? You didn't end up in some fan-made knock-off game, did you? Or a short-lived mobile spin-off that only a few people will ever play?" The girl had a concerned look on her face.

"Nope, and Tiny Me, I have a surprise for you." Neptune grinned and walked over to the couch and pulled Nepgear in front of her. "It's this world's Nepgear."

"Wow! I was wondering if there were other Nep Jrs. out there." Neptune's eyes lit up happily. "I know that my Nep Jr. would love to know this. But she's out doing quests with Uni today." Neptune sighed. "I'd go out too, but I promised Histy I'd do paperwork today." She looked to the side and pouted. "I swear, anyway, Nep Jr., what are you..." Neptune trailed off as she saw how Nepgear was giving her an awkward look that almost seemed like she was trying to smile. "Nep Jr.? Are you okay?"

"You don't..." Nepgear said softly. "You have no idea, how much hearing you call me that means to me, onee-chan..."

"D'aww! If you want me to call you Nep Jr. some more, I'll do just that Nep Jr." The smaller Neptune smiled brightly at Nepgear. "But surely you didn't just call me to have me call you that or for Big Me to tell me that she was okay."

Nepgear gave her a soft look. "Just... Just seeing you is more than I could have hoped. You and this Neptune..." She sniffled and rubbed her eyes. "I apologize."

"Nep Jr.?" Both Neptunes said at the same time.

"Onee-chan..." Nepgear tried to smile, but found it hard as her face didn't want to completely cooperate with her. "I've missed you so much."

"Nep what?" The smaller Neptune had a surprised look on her face. "Did the me of your world get stuck in another dimension and never came back or something?"

Nepgear looked crestfallen as she spoke. "You... You were killed in my world ten years ago."

"Say what? Me? The great protagonist?" The Neptune in the projection gasped in shock. "I can't die! That's just not cool! I'm the main character! You can't just kill the main character! Bad author! At least tell me it was some epic battle against an evil CPU or something."

"...White Heart, Black Heart and Green Heart killed you." Nepgear answered, causing Neptune's eyes to go white and blank.

"Say whaa?" Neptune swayed from side to side with her finger up by her face. "Bu... But why would Noire, Vert and Blanc want to kill little ol' me?" Her eyes screwed shut as she had a distressed look on her face. "Don't tell me that I did something stupid like I ate all their pudding and they felt that was the last straw or something!"

"Um..." Nepgear shook her head. "No, you were at war with them for a long time and they were tricked by someone named Arfoire and killed you in Celestia."

"Arbore again?" Neptune groaned. "How many times has she been a pain in the butt now? I've lost count."

"Arfjord?" The bigger Neptune blinked and thought about it. "Oh! You mean the ugly old woman who hasn't had anyone swim up that inlet in a thousand years!"

"Um," Nepgear had a troubled look on her face, "Neptune... It's good to see you." She looked at the bigger Neptune and tried to smile again. "I... This is the best day of my life."

Not far away, Jupiter felt like she wanted to crawl away and hide in her room and cry. 'Of course sis would be super happy to have her big sister back, I'm not the one she cares about am I? Why did I ever think that I mattered? Sis doesn't care about...' Her quickly darkening thoughts were interrupted as she felt a hand on her arm. Looking up, she saw Nepgear giving her a gentle look as she pulled Jupiter in front of the projector.

"This is my little sister, Jupiter."

"Wow! You're really cute!" The Neptune in the projection smiled, her eyes sparkling in delight. "You're taking good care of Nep Jr., aren't you, Nep the Third?"

Jupiter gawked at her. "...Your bigger self named me the same thing."

The smaller Neptune had a ear-to-ear grin on her face. "Heh heh heh! When you're the main character, you get lots of special privileges! Even if your other self comes along and steals the show with your predecessor." Neptune pouted.

"Oh come on, Tiny Me!" Neptune pouted at her smaller self. "I haven't even been able to get into any of the official spin-offs since our big adventure, isn't that punishment enough?"

"Please cut out the meta humor." Both Histoires said at the same time, a long suffering sigh coming from both of them as the two Neptunes started to giggle while rubbing the back of their heads.

"Well, I'd like to keep talking, but I promised Histy I'd get the paperwork done today." Neptune waved at them. "Big Me, I'll tell the others you're okay. Uzume was really worried about you. Nep Jr., Nep the Third, you two can call any time, okay? If you wanna talk to me or my Nep Jr. or anything, just give us a call, okay?"

"Um, Neptune..." Nepgear began as the smaller Neptune looked at her curiously. "Could you... Could you take your sister out on a picnic for me?" Nepgear had a wistful look on her face. "When my Neptune was alive, we went on picnics when we could. I miss doing that."

"D'aww! Sure thing, Nep Jr.! Just for you, okay?" Neptune giggled at her. "Okay, I gotta go." She disappeared from the screen, only to replaced by Histoire, who had an exasperated look on her face.

"I apologize for that, but it's so hard to get her to do work some days." She sighed softly and gave a wry smile. "Though she's been getting better, I admit."

"Nepgear, Neptune, Jupiter, may I speak to my other self in private please?" Histoire asked as the three sisters got out of the way and walked out of the living room. "You seem to have trouble with your Neptune working?"

Histoire nodded at her other self. "Yes. She's gotten much better at it lately, namely I can get her to actually do work without needing to strap her down to the chair." She had a small smirk on her face as she said that. "Do you have that same problem with Nepgear?"

Histoire shook her head. "No... In fact, it's the opposite..." She looked very troubled by something, much to the other Histoire's surprise. "Please, take it from me." Histoire had a tired, sad and somber look on her face. "Don't over-work her. You'll miss what she is if you do."

"...I won't ask about it, but I'll take your advice to heart." The Histoire from the Hyper Dimension said. "I must go."

Histoire nodded as the connection cut off. She looked at the door where Jupiter was looking back at her with worry. "Histoire, are you okay?"

"I..." Histoire shrugged helplessly. "I do not know."

Croire continued to sleep, snoring lightly.

(-)

"So..." Neptune looked at Nepgear and Jupiter, who ran to catch up to them, as they walked away from the living room. "Do you two want to go on a picnic?" Both of them looked at her in surprise. "Well, you sounded like you really wanted to go on one."

"It just rained." Nepgear and Jupiter pointed out at the same time.

"Oh, well that wouldn't be fun. Oh! I know!" Neptune's eyes started to sparkle. "How about the three of us go and take a walk around the city?" The two sisters just looked at her weirdly. "Well, I mean, I've never been in this dimension before, so maybe you two can show me around, huh? Besides, it'll be a few hours before night time, right?"

"...Are you staying?" Nepgear asked, trying to keep her hope tampered down.

"For a little bit at least. Crostie isn't feeling well, that reminds me, I should put her back in the Nep-Note when we get back so she doesn't just leave me here." Neptune tapped her chin. "Yeah, I should do that, but she was sleeping, so I'll let her sleep. So, let's go!" Grinning, Neptune looped her arm through Nepgear and Jupiter's arms and ran out the front door.

"Waaaaait!" Nepgear and Jupiter said at the same time as they were dragged along.

(-)

B-Sha blinked as she saw Nepgear and a young girl that she had seen from time to time in the Basilicom being dragged out by a young woman. "Um, excuse me." She said as she got up and got in front of the girl in the black hoodie. "What are you doing?"

The young woman grinned at her. "I'm kidnapping these two to go have fun today." B-Sha gawked at her as the woman ran past her and out the front door.

"...What just happened?"

"Ah..." Histoire floated out at that moment. "B-Sha, did a young woman with long dark pink hair and a black hoodie run through here with two others?"

"She said she was kidnapping the CPU and that girl to have fun." B-Sha was about to call for security, but she doubted anyone could just kidnap Nepgear that easily.

"Rest assured, the person who did it means no harm to Nepgear." Histoire smiled softly. "In fact, she's the best thing to happen to Nepgear since she became Planeptune's CPU."

B-Sha just blinked in confusion, but nodded. "Okay. Oh, um, Lady Histoire, Lei-Lei's been missing for the past couple of days. I called her phone, but she's not answering."

Histoire had a concerned look on her face. "This is concerning, I've known her to be a good worker, a little high strung, but a good worker. Have you filed a missing person's report?" B-Sha nodded and Histoire tapped her chin. "Did you put a request in at the guild?"

"Yes, but all I've heard back is that no one can get a hold of her at her apartment and it doesn't look like it was broken into." B-Sha had a worried look on her face. "I mean, I tease her sometimes, but she's a good person. What if she went off somewhere and died?"

"I'll tell you what," Histoire gave B-Sha a gentle look. "When Nepgear gets back, I'll have her look into it, okay?" B-Sha smiled and nodded at that and Histoire smiled back. "...You know something... I've known Nepgear for years, and this is the first time that I've seen her so happy."

B-Sha smiled happily at that. "I'm so glad!"

(-)

As they walked down the sidewalk, Nepgear nodded to the people who waved at her. There weren't too many people out, since they were probably worried about another storm coming in fast and hard. "Jupiter..." She looked at her younger sister, who was looking at her curiously. "I'm sorry."

"Huh?" Jupiter asked as the group stopped while Neptune stood off to the side, her arms crossed under her breasts.

Nepgear sighed and uncrossed her arms so that they hung loosely by her side. "For getting mad at you, for grounding you... And I bet you probably feel a little jealous right now, with how much attention I've given to my older sister." Her voice was soft as she continued to speak. "I've known you your whole life, but I know... I was never like that around you." Nepgear wasn't crying, but her face was full of remorse. "Please forgive your worthless big sister."

The next thing she knew, Jupiter was hugging her and burying her face into Nepgear's chest. "Sis... I don't hate you. I got a bit upset, yes, but I love you, sis."

Nepgear tried to smile, she really did, but it was hard for her, so she settled for hugging Jupiter back. "I love you too. I... I really am sorry for acting like I have."

"You know..." Neptune said, causing Nepgear to look up in surprise as Neptune poked her cheeks and pushed up. "You need to smile more."

The smile that Neptune was forcing Nepgear to make was horrible, grotesque and just plain weird.

It was also the first smile that had graced her face in over ten years.

Jupiter, who had slipped away from Nepgear while Neptune was forcing her sister to smile, giggled heavily as she pulled out a camera and took some pictures. "Sis is smiling! I never thought I'd see the day she would smile!" Sure, it was being forced on her by their elder sister, but it was still a smile!

The few people who were out smiled as they saw their CPU being friendly with a young girl and another young woman. While none of them knew what they were discussing, it was nice to see their CPU being friendly with people.

Nepgear was known by most people as a cool and aloof CPU, so seeing her being friendly just made them happier.

"So..." Neptune pulled her fingers away from Nepgear and smiled at her younger sisters. 'They aren't my younger sisters, but I already decided that Nepgear's my younger sister. Since she's a Nepgear and Jupiter's her younger sister, that makes them my sisters.' She grinned and started giggling happily. "You know, you two can call me big sister all you want, but anyway, how about you two show me around some then?"

"Sure." Jupiter smiled brightly and grabbed Nepgear and Neptune's hands and started walking down the sidewalk with each of her elder sisters on either side of her.

Nepgear looked at Neptune, then at Jupiter and felt her lips curve upwards softly. 'When was the last time I felt like this? That I felt this relaxed?'

She couldn't remember.

It wasn't important anyway, she might have been a failure in everything in life, but she could at least try to correct her mistake with her younger sister and be a better big sister. 'Odd, just a few hours ago I was freaking out over the other CPUs knowing about her, but here I am, completely calm and relaxed.' She looked at Neptune and nodded. 'She's why. Big sis is why.'

Nepgear knew that one day Neptune would have to leave. But while she was there, Nepgear was going to make the most of it. 'Paperwork can wait, I'm spending time with my family.'

For once, she was going to be selfish. Unless an emergency came up that needed her attention, she was going to ignore it.

(-)

It was just after eight at night when IF found herself above a vat that was filled with a green-like gel. "So this..." She was blushing as a pair of nurses in white outfits helped her into a harness that looked like a pair of speedo bikini bottoms and had two tubes at the bottom of it. The tubes went through the tank and were connected to a hole at the bottom of the vat and IF wondered what they were for. "Um..."

"Lift your arms, miss IF." One of the nurses, a tall woman with short purple hair, yellow eyes and a large chest said as IF complied and a strap was put over her small chest. "There, that way we can get you out in case something goes wrong." Seeing IF's concerned look, she smiled. "It's just a safety precaution." The straps were connected to a pulley that was attached to the ceiling.

"I hope you're not claustrophobic." The other nurse, this one was just as tall as the other one and had long pink hair, green eyes and, for some reason, a metal plate-like head cover over her forehead, said as she fit a mask over IF's nose and mouth while putting goggles over IF's eyes.

IF shook her head. "No, but, um... Do I need to be naked for this?" She asked, her face red. "The front of the tube is open and this chest strap doesn't cover much."

"Well, yes you do." The first nurse said to her. "Don't worry, the gel isn't completely transparent and you'll be completely covered head to toe. That's why you have the oxygen mask on."

IF nodded as she was moved and lowered into the vat. "Anything I should know?"

"Yeah," the pink-haired nurse nodded at her. "The gel will make your body tingle in weird ways and the injured parts of you will burn a little bit. It's about as bad as rubbing Bengay onto cramped muscles though, so it's bearable. Anyway, when you're put inside, you'll be down there for a good while. So try to get some sleep." The nurse nodded at her.

IF nodded and yelped as her bare feet were dipped into the vat and she watched as her body slowly sank into it. 'This looks and feels weird.'

It didn't take long for her to be completely submerged in the liquid.

The doctor hadn't been lying, it really did feel like a warm swimming pool.

Compa, who was standing in front of the vat, watched as IF was fully lowered into it. "Wow, Iffy looks like she's in one of those regen pods from that show about the space warrior prince who fought against the tyrant lizard overlord that killed his species off."

"Indeed." The nurse, a young woman with amber eyes, long purple hair that was hanging off her shoulders loosely, next to her smiled. "Our CPU insisted we make it like this." She gave Compa a nice smile.

Compa's eyes lit up. Anyone who liked that show couldn't be a bad person. "Um, so what's with the two tubes?" She asked as she looked at the tubes connected to the bottom of the IF's panties.

"Waste disposal tubes." The nurse answered, causing Compa to blink. "Our patients are in there for twelve or more hours, some of them lose control of their bowels or bladder while in there. The tubes suck out that waste and send it away."

"...Eww!" Compa grimaced. "Do you..."

"The bikini-briefs around Miss IF's waist private areas is disposable and biodegradable." The nurse answered her. "We never use the same panty harness twice."

Compa sighed, that was good. "I take it that some of the first patients accidentally went while in the vat?"

The purple-haired nurse nodded. "Oh yes, it was a big problem and this was the best fix we found. Anyway, if you want to, we have..."

"I'll stay here." Compa said, a stern look on her face. "It's my fault Iffy's hurt, so I want to see her get better."

The nurse smiled at her. "I'll bring you a chair then."

Compa nodded in thanks and turned back to watch IF, who half floated in the vat. "Iffy... What are you thinking about, I wonder..." Knowing IF, it was probably something silly.

And to Compa, that would be just fine.

(-)

'My nose itches.' IF thought to herself and pouted. 'This is going to be a long bath, isn't it?'

* * *

Neptune and Histoire made an agreement that Histy wouldn't bother Neptune during gaming marathons if Neptune got caught up on her work first. Plus there was a game coming out that Neptune really wanted to play.

As for IF's doctor and nurses, well, I can spill the beans now. The doctor is based off of Jail Scagiletti from Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS with the two nurses that put IF in the regen tank being based off of Tre (short hair) and Sette (pink hair) with the nurse who talked to Compa being based off of Uno. Originally they were supposed to be just generic doctor and nurses 1, 2 and 3, but my beta reader pointed out that the doctor going "the regen tank is extremely cold... Six years ago" as a way to mess with IF reminded him of Jail. And thus, the rest is history.

* * *

"Welcome to Nepstation, this is your host Abnes and..."

"...Mr. Badd."

"Wait, why are YOU here?!"

"Well, I'm not in the story what-so-ever, but people were wondering about me, so for everyone who wanted to know, I live in Planeptune with my wife and many children, both biological and adopted."

"...Didn't your wife die in Victory though?"

"But Lady Lilac Heart's medical technology saved her life."

"Oh, well, that's fine for you, but..."

"Anyway, we should do the preview for the next chapter."

"Well, I, the lovely Abnes, am in the next chapter and..."

"Oh dear, you probably won't like being tied up to the ceiling through thumb screws then."

"WHAT?!"

"Or the flogging."

"HUH?!"

"Or the walk of shame around Leanbox with no clothes on."

"NOW HOLD ON A MINUTE!"

"What? I'm just reading what the author gave me."

"WHY YOU!"

"That's all the time we have, this is Mr. Badd..."

"AND A VERY ANGRY ABNES SIGNING OFF! GA-THUNK! WAAAAAAAAHHH!"

"She just ran off crying. I hope she knows that I was messing with her."


	25. Chapter 20

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

I find it hilarious that Super Neptunia RPG confirms that Blanc likes big boobs. And apparently Noire copied Neptune's game console design, just changed the color.

* * *

The next morning...

Nepgear, wearing nothing but her panties, sat up in her bed, yawning and stretching. She had slept so soundly that she was still bleary-eyed. Rubbing her eyes of the stuff that had built up over-night, she looked to her side as she saw a bump under her blanket. Pulling it up, she felt a smile, or at least, an attempt at one, come to her face as she saw Jupiter, wearing pajamas, sleeping next to her, snoring softly.

Slipping out of bed quietly so she didn't wake her sister up, Nepgear tucked Jupiter back in. "Nngh, sis?" Jupiter opened her eyes to look at her sleepily. "What..?"

Nepgear shook her head. "Just get some more sleep, okay?" Jupiter nodded and closed her eyes, sighing happily when Nepgear gently rubbed her head.

After sitting like that for a couple of minutes, Nepgear got up and got dressed. Looking at her younger sister one last time, she left the room. Walking down the hallway, she eventually met Histoire, who was fully dressed and awake. "Good morning, Nepgear. You must have been really tired. You're up two hours later than usual."

Nepgear had a soft look on her face. "Histoire, I'll be in my office, catching up on the paperwork. Please let Jupiter sleep in, okay? And when she wakes up, please send her to me, I wish to talk to her later. Oh, is Neptune up yet?" Histoire shook her head. "Okay, let me know when she is. ...And, Histoire." Nepgear sighed softly. "I'd like to spend the day with Neptune and Jupiter when they get up, okay?"

Histoire nodded at that. "That's fine."

Nepgear had a troubled look on her face and nodded. "Histoire, I want to apologize to you." Histoire gave Nepgear a confused look. "For yesterday. I..." She took a deep breath. "You were right. I was hurting Jupiter's growth with how I was acting."

"Nepgear..." Histoire sighed softly. "I... I shouldn't have said that, I was just so upset. And... I have no room to speak, not after what I did to you."

Nepgear was silent for a moment. "You know, Histoire... If we keep trying to apologize to each other, I'll never get anything done." Histoire nodded at her. "And... I want to say one more thing..." Histoire tilted her head. "I'm a failure at so much in life, Histoire, will you give me another chance?"

Histoire smiled at Nepgear and floated forward, putting her hands on Nepgear's cheeks. "Only if you give me another chance. Nepgear, the two of us only know each other as associates, I'd like... I'd like to be friends with you."

Reaching a trembling hand up, Nepgear put it on Histoire's back and nodded. "Sure, I'd like a friend too. But I need to do some work now."

"Of course. I'll let you know when your sisters are awake." Histoire backed off and watched as Nepgear went into her office. Histoire smiled softly. 'So this is the real you, Nepgear? The one not bound by sadness, rage and hate?' Histoire suddenly stiffened in surprise as she felt something touch her from behind. Turning around, she stared in shock as she saw the smaller Neptune from the inter-dimensional call from yesterday smiling at her. Blinking and rubbing her eyes, she was confused as that Neptune was no longer there. 'What was that? Why did I see the small Neptune all of a sudden?'

(-)

It was almost an hour later when Jupiter, still wearing her pajamas, stumbled into Nepgear's office. "Hey sis... You wanted to see me?"

Nepgear nodded. "Yes, I'm almost done, go to the bathroom or whatever you need to do first and then pull up a seat here." She didn't look up and Jupiter was honestly surprised at how fast she was going through the paperwork.

"Sure..." Jupiter left the room and went to get dressed.

Twenty minutes later...

"I'm back." Jupiter said as she grabbed a chair and rolled it across the floor over to Nepgear's desk. "Wow, sis, you're on a roll today."

"Yeah." Nepgear nodded and looked at Jupiter as she sat down next to the desk. "Jupiter, I want to apologize." Jupiter had a confused look come to her face as she wondered what Nepgear was going on about. Nepgear, for her part, had a pensive look on her face. "Before I begin, please allow me to finish what I'm going to say, because I'm going to say a lot, and I don't want you to interrupt me every ten words."

"Okay..." Jupiter said softly. "What's wrong then?"

"I'm not a good big sister." Nepgear said to her, causing Jupiter's eyes to widen. "When you were born... I said to myself that you weren't Neptune, that I shouldn't treat you like you were Neptune." She sighed while Jupiter nodded. "I guess I took that to heart too much, because I kept treating you as not-Neptune... Instead of my little sister."

Jupiter was thunderstruck and wouldn't be able to speak even if Nepgear didn't ask her to not interrupt.

"And... Thinking back... Well, before that, when we were talking to Neptune yesterday, I saw you... You looked like you wanted to crawl away and cry." Jupiter jerked in surprise and Nepgear let out a soft sound of mild amusement. "You forget who your elder sister is, you're nowhere near as good at hiding your emotions as I am." She sighed again. "Seeing the other Neptunes... It was the happiest I've been in years. But..." A sorrowful look came to Nepgear's face. "Jupiter... I..." She took a shuddering breath. "Forgive me, my mind is going all over the place right now."

Jupiter nodded, she could wait. After all, Nepgear seemed almost lost at how to continue.

"I resented you." Nepgear said softly, causing Jupiter to stare in shock, her eyes starting to water in fear and sadness. "I tried to not treat you as Neptune, but everytime I saw you, I felt, at some level, that you were trying to take her away from me."

Jupiter sniffled and stood up. "I... I'm sorry, I'll..." Suddenly Nepgear grabbed her and pulled her into a tight hug.

"I'm not finished yet." Nepgear said softly. "After Neptune came yesterday and after talking to the other Neptune... And seeing you look like you wanted to cry, that's when I realized something important."

"...Sis..?" Jupiter was worried, was Nepgear going to say that she hated her?

"I miss my Neptune, I love her, nothing can change that. But..." Nepgear put her hands on Jupiter's shoulders and pulled her away gently to look her in the eyes. "You're my little sister, you aren't her replacement. You aren't trying to steal her away from me. You're an irreplaceable part of my life, Jupiter."

"S..Sis..." Jupiter's eyes were tearing up.

Nepgear's eyes were likewise starting to tear up. "I love you, Jupiter. Can you forgive your foolish failure of an elder sister for being so cruel to you?"

Jupiter nodded and hugged Nepgear, who hugged her back, tightly. "Yes. I'm sorry I made you feel like that."

"You did nothing wrong." Nepgear said softly. "I promise, right now... I'll spend more time with you, okay?"

Jupiter nodded, smiling as she cuddled against her sister.

Standing by the slightly open door outside of Nepgear's office, Neptune smiled happily. She wasn't too happy hearing what Nepgear thought about Jupiter, but it looked like her younger sisters were going to work through their problems on their own. 'This kind of reminds me of Tiny Me and her Nepgear working out their problems after the whole Kurome thing was done.' Kurome's brainwashing of the smaller Neptune had brought some uncomfortable truths forward, plus the two had other issues they had to work through on top of it, but in the end, they had gotten through it, the bond the two sisters had already been strong, but Neptune could swear that after talking out their problems that the bond between her other self and her younger sister was stronger than ever before. 'And it looks like my sisters in this world will be just fine.'

After waiting for a minute, Neptune opened the door to Nepgear's office. "Good morning!" She cheered loudly, causing both of her sisters to jump with a shriek. "Oh wow! Mercy! Mercy!" She giggled at the looks they gave her.

The annoyed looks disappeared as Jupiter laughed while Nepgear gave an amused snort at the long-haired Neptune, who grinned back at them happily.

(-)

Meanwhile...

"Iffy! Iffy!" Compa said as she watched her friend being pulled out of the vat, the tubes that had been at the bottom of IF's underwear popped off as soon as she came out of the vat. 'At least Iffy smells nice.'

"Nnngh..." IF groaned, feeling both refreshed and stiff as a board oddly enough. "Compa? How long was I, YEEK!" IF screamed in surprise as the pink haired nurse removed the bikini briefs from her waist, leaving her completely exposed before putting it in a plastic bag and into a bio-hazard waste basket.

"How many times have I told you, wait until we have them at the shower area?" The other nurse rolled her eyes. "Relax, Miss IF, we'll be wheeling you over to the shower area next."

"Easy for you to say." IF grumbled as she was lowered into a wheelchair and the top harness was removed, leaving her naked. Covering her chest and hunching over, IF glared at the nurses. "Can't I have a covering at least?"

"Why?" The pink haired nurse said as she got behind IF and pushed her down the ramp and onto the main floor area of the healing tanks. "You would need to take it off right now anyway." The nurse pushed open a door and IF saw the amount of shower heads on the wall. "These detach, I'll be using them to rinse your body off." Pushing IF to a stall, the pink-haired nurse helped IF up and out of her wheelchair and instructed her to hold onto the metal support bars on the side while she turned on the water and warmed it up.

"I don't like standing here naked." IF groused, at least her feet were on the ground, so she wasn't supporting her entire weight with her arms, before yelping as the nurse started spraying her with a powerful but warm spray of water, starting from her head from behind.

"You will be taken care of. If you are worried that I will do lewd things to you, please rest assured that while I am working, I am completely professional." The woman's voice was completely normal and somewhat dry.

IF gave her a weird look. "For some reason, I'm worried you'll stick that in my butt and give me a surprise enema or something."

"...Are you having trouble with your bowel movements? I can schedule an enema for you if that's the case."

IF shook her head. "No! I'm not constipated! Trust me on that." She just hoped that the nurse really was a professional and not a secret pervert.

"Very well, but if you are concerned, it can be done quickly and discreetly." The nurse answered as she sprayed down IF's back and across her butt-cheeks.

IF wasn't sure if she was thankful or not that the nurse didn't spend more time spraying her butt than she did. 'At least she's honest about being professional.' IF thought as the nurse grabbed her shoulder and told her to turn around.

After awkwardly turning around which thankfully didn't involve falling down as IF discovered that while her leg didn't hurt anymore, it was still rather weak and she almost toppled over. Thankfully the nurse had grabbed her by her arms to hold her up and help her turn around fully.

After IF's face was done being sprayed, the brown haired girl looked at her curiously. "Hey, how come you wear a metal plate on your forehead?"

"I like it." Was the reply. "Plus I was in an automobile accident and I have scars on my forehead." IF gave her a confused look. "While the vats can heal the damage to your body, it doesn't heal scars, as you can see if you look at your leg," IF looked down and saw that, yes, her leg was still a scarred mess of flesh, "you need to use the cosmetic vats for that, and I did not wish to waste time with that. The metal plate also keeps my hair out of my eyes."

IF had nothing to say to that.

After a minute more, the nurse turned the water off and pulled out a towel and started wiping IF off.

"I can towel myself off." IF was a bit irritated.

"Yes, but your leg muscles have weakened quite a bit." The nurse answered her. "You will be dressed and transported over to physical therapy."

IF let out an annoyed huff, but didn't protest anymore as her body was cleaned off. "That's fine, I can get them back to working order."

The nurse nodded at her. "That attitude is exactly what you need, Miss IF."

IF grinned as she was put into a wheelchair and wheeled out of the shower room. "If I didn't have this attitude, I would have given up awhile ago and... HEY! You can't wheel me into the hallway naked!"

"Do not worry." The nurse said. "The clothes are kept down the hallway."

"That's not the problem!" IF screamed in annoyance.

Watching them go down the hallway, Compa turned to the doctor. "Shouldn't we have Iffy get dressed in the shower room?"

"Yes, why do you..." The doctor turned to see who was carting IF to the clothes room. "...Oh dear, she tends to do this a lot. I'm not sure if she's doing it to tease cute patients or if she's doing it because she's that clueless."

Compa sweat-dropped heavily. She wasn't in any position to speak, she had done similar things when she was in-training to become a nurse after all.

(-)

In Lastation...

"We'll be heading home then." White Heart said to Noire. Vert had already left, stating she had a lot of work to catch up on. "Noire, thank you, for calming me down."

Noire waved her off. "Don't worry about it. At least we know who hacked into your amusement park now, huh?"

White Heart nodded, she couldn't believe that her security had been so vulnerable that an idiot could use their cellphone to cause the attractions to try and kill the patrons. At least the idiot that had been responsible for this was already in custody in Leanbox, which was part of the reason why Vert had taken off back to Leanbox.

After White Heart and her two sisters left, Noire looked at Uni, who was fidgeting in place. "...What's wrong?"

"...What will I say if I get to see Jupiter again?" Uni asked her. "I know she's a CPU Candidate, I know she kept it a secret from me, I know why she did it, but..."

Noire gave Uni a look of understanding. "If you want my advice, I'd say just be how you were around her in Leanbox." Uni looked at Noire, an unreadable expression on her face. "We're going to try and fix things with Nepgear, Uni. At the very least, even if Nepgear refuses us, maybe she'll allow her sister to come see you, Rom and Ram."

"But..." Uni trailed off as Noire gave her a wry smirk. "Um, sis?"

"If you're that worried about stuff, why don't you do some work and get your mind off of it for now and let your big sister worry about the meeting in a week, okay?"

Uni nodded at Noire. "Sure, thanks."

Noire just smiled at her. "Now then, we're behind on paperwork. Having to do both yours and mine set me back pretty far, so you better bust your butt and help me get caught up."

"Of course!" Uni smiled back. Sure, paperwork wasn't always fun, but at least it kept them busy.

(-)

Somewhere in Leanbox...

"I tell you, I don't know any of that!" Abnes, who was tied to a chair, yelled at Mister Chief, a member of the OG division who wore a camouflage-colored body suit and helmet with a visor on it, who merely looked at her through his visor and shook his head. "I can't hack an amusement park with my phone!"

Mister Chief held up a sign explaining things to Abnes, who turned red at that.

"I don't know how to do that! I don't know HOW you bozos figure that I was the one who made that amusement park go crazy! There wasn't any Anti-CPU members at that amusement park!" The blonde paled as Cave walked in, her large pair of scissors in her hands. "Wh-wh-wha-what are you going to do?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Cave answered and put her scissors down near the door. "Lady Green Heart will return soon, and she already knows that Abnes here is the reason that Lady White Heart's amusement park went crazy."

"Like I already told this guy! I didn't do it!" Abnes screeched in anger while she shook on the chair while trying to kick her legs and failing.

Cave and Mister Chief both gave her an unamused look. Well, Cave did, it was hard to tell with Mister Chief as no one could see his face. "So you're telling us that not only are we wrong, but so are Lastation IT engineers who had access to all information about what happened from Lowee and they discovered that the signal not only originated from a phone in Leanbox, but the MEID number matches your cell phone perfectly?"

"Yes! Because I didn't do it!"

Mister Chief held up a sign and Cave read it before nodding. "Indeed, are you saying there's a hacker out there so skilled that they can not only hack into Lowee's systems, but also make it look like your phone is the source of the hack and not them?"

"That has to be it!" Abnes yelled, her eyes white and blank. "Someone had to do just that!"

Mister Chief held a sign laced with profanities and Cave nodded in agreement.

"I didn't do anything!" Abnes yelled in anger.

"You know..." Cave began. "If you don't admit to what you did by the time Lady Green Heart gets back, I can't guarantee anything." Abnes's eyes widened and she started to tremble. "I believe I heard some Anti-CPU propaganda saying that if you anger a goddess that she'll slowly peel your skin off of your flesh while you're naked and then cut your organs out, one by one, while keeping you alive before finally ending your life."

Abnes trembled before slumping, her eyes rolling into the back of her head and her mouth starting to foam.

"Huh, she passed out pretty easily." Cave gave no indication whether or not she was pleased by that or not.

Mister Chief held up a sign.

"No, Lady Green Heart would not do any of those things. But the Anti-CPU members aren't the smartest pair of scissors in the tool shed after all." Cave gave him a small grin and Mister Chief nodded at her.

"Still..." Cave trailed off. "What she says may have merit. If there is a hacker that skilled, we can't completely discount it." She crossed her arms under her boobs while tapping one with her left finger while cupping her chin with her right hand.

Mister Chief held up a sign and Cave nodded. "True." She unfolded her arms. "It's so unlikely that I shouldn't worry about it. If such a person did exist, they would be a grave threat to everything."

Still, she couldn't help but worry for some reason.

(-)

Meanwhile...

Anonydeath sighed heavily as he worked on hacking through the encryption on the computer from the Order that was holed up in Lastation. He had been so busy since talking to Jupiter over the phone that he hadn't even been paying attention to any on-goings in the other countries, figuring that he'd just do a marathon watch at five times the speed and run any interesting tidbits back at normal speed. Leaning back, he groaned in dismay. "The things I do for you, Honey." He shook his head. He could have easily used his automated program to get through the encryption, but recently he had felt the urge to work harder and figure out who Miss R really was.

"No, that's not true, is it?" Anonydeath asked himself rhetorically. "It's because Honey's cute little sister had that monster transportation disk." It had bothered him tremendously when he first saw it, especially after he discovered Planeptune tech had been used to make it, but that wasn't the only reason he had been worried.

It wasn't until he did some searching on the web about monster transportation disks that he finally remembered why.

"The Arfoire Incident, strange that I would forget." Anonydeath shook his head. Then again, it was over ten years ago and he had been a young teenager who lived in Lastation when it happened. Black Heart had saved him when a monster disk was used to have monsters over-run his small town in her nation and he had been instantly attracted to her strength, her confidence and, of course, her looks.

While no official sources knew why those disks worked at all, Anonydeath had dug into Lastation, Leanbox and Lowee's information systems and the history that was both contained and classified within and had discovered something that made him even more worried and made him more anxious to discover who Miss R really was.

"If these monster transportation disks are like the previous ones, only someone who has the power of a Goddess can make them, but they only work so long as that Goddess is still alive." Anonydeath said softly. Behind his face-plate, his eyes widened as he finally got through the encryption and got access to the information held within. "About time you opened up, you naughty thing. Now..." His normally feminine-like voice became almost sinister. "Tell me your secrets."

He really hoped that he was wrong. He'd find out if the computer had any stored emails with IP addresses on them. "This would be so much easier if I had the computers on hand." Anonydeath muttered in annoyance.

(-)

After getting back to Lowee and landing on the balcony at the Basilicom, White Heart and her sisters reverted to their human forms. Opening the balcony to the living quarters, they were instantly greeted. "Blanny! Rommy! Rammy!" C-Sha, in her usual attire, waved and ran up to them, hugging Blanc tightly, causing the short CPU to turn scarlet as her face was pressed into C-Sha's breasts.

"H, hey! Not in public, dummy!" Blanc protested, though she didn't fight too hard, C-Sha's breasts were rather relaxing.

"But sis, we're not in public." Ram grinned at Blanc.

Rom tugged on C-Sha's outfit, causing the girl to let Blanc go. "Miss C-Sha... Do you wanna marry Blanc?"

Both C-Sha and Blanc went stiff at that. "Well..." C-Sha's face was a bit red as she thought about it for a few moments. "I certainly wouldn't mind it if Blanny wanted to get married."

Blanc was about to answer when an image flashed through her head and her expression soured. "You wouldn't want to marry a monster like me. Excuse me." She turned and quickly walked out, leaving C-Sha, Rom and Ram looking at her in confusion.

C-Sha looked at where Blanc had been with worry, she had seen tears escaping Blanc's eyes as she turned to walk away. "Blanny..."

"What's wrong?" Ram asked, her face showing confusion.

C-Sha shook her head. "I'm not sure. Maybe Blanny's just tired. I'll talk to her later, okay?"

The twins nodded, clearly worried about their sister.

(-)

Blanc entered her room and slammed the door behind her. Leaning against it, she slid down until she was sitting on her butt while pulling her knees up to her face. "I don't deserve C-Sha... Why does she love me? I'm just a monster."

Images of that fateful battle against Purple Heart flashed through her mind. 'Why? Why did I allow myself to be manipulated?' Blanc thought to herself. 'And... Why did I enjoy it so fucking much?!' She knew that neither Noire nor Vert had looked like they truly enjoyed it while they were beating on and killing Purple Heart.

But Blanc knew that she did, that she had enjoyed it at the time.

Tearing up, Blanc buried her face into her knees and sobbed. "Purple Heart, Neptune... Nepgear... I'm so, so sorry..."

Blanc didn't know how long she had been there when the door opened behind her. She didn't react as C-Sha slipped into the room and closed the door behind her. She didn't react when C-Sha sat down next to her and put her hand on Blanc's legs. "Blanny..." There was no response. "Blanny..." C-Sha put her hand on Blanc's shoulder and gave her a shake.

Blanc lifted her head and looked at C-Sha. The CPU looked absolutely miserable and C-Sha instantly understood why. Grabbing Blanc, she pulled the CPU against her chest and held her. "C-Sha... Why...?"

"It's okay, Blanny." C-Sha held the small CPU. "You're not a monster."

"Yes I am." Blanc muttered before C-Sha shifted and cupped her chin to make her look up. "C-Sha?"

C-Sha gave Blanc a gentle, but chaste, kiss on the lips, causing the CPU to turn scarlet in response. "Heh..." C-Sha had an amused look on her face. "Even after all this time, after all the years we've known each other, you still react like it's the first kiss between us, Blanny."

"...Why do you love me?" Blanc asked, her face slowly returning to normal.

C-Sha shrugged at her. "I just do. But if you were a monster, Blanny, I wouldn't kiss you, I wouldn't love you, and I wouldn't love your sisters like they were mine."

Blanc's face turned a bit red as she planted her face into C-Sha's breasts. "Don't leave me, please?"

"Of course." C-Sha said and rubbed Blanc's back as she hugged her. The two sat like that for a couple of minutes before C-Sha spoke up again. "Your sisters are worried about you."

"Where are they?" Blanc asked as she nuzzled C-Sha and tried to relax.

"Playing games right now." C-Sha smiled as Blanc pulled her head up to look C-Sha in the face. "Come on, let's go play with them."

Blanc nodded as C-Sha got up and helped her up to her feet so they could go see what Rom and Ram were doing together. As she walked next to C-Sha, Blanc looked up at the taller woman. "...C-Sha..."

"Yes?" The hunter smiled at the CPU, "what is it, Blanny?"

"Thank you." Blanc looked ahead, a small smile on her face. "I don't know why you put up with me, but I'm glad you do."

"That's because I love you, Blanny." C-Sha grinned as Blanc turned red.

Blanc wondered how she could make it up to C-Sha later. Her mind came up with a few ideas before she shook her head to clear them away. 'C-Sha's too good for me.'

(-)

Standing on top of one of Planeptune's taller skyscrapers, a woman wearing a black pantsuit who had blue eyes and light blue hair giggled a high pitched laugh. "Gee hee hee hee. Should we do it now?" Her face was full of eagerness as she grinned while looking to the South at the Basilicom. Turning to her left, she revealed that her left side had dark blue, almost black, hair while her left eye was a different color.

"No, not yet." A voice that was quite a bit deeper, though still easily female, spoke up. "Trust me, we both waited this long, what's a few more days?"

The woman grinned savagely and turned to her right and laughed her high pitched laugh. "Gee hee hee! True! We both waited for centuries for our revenge on Gamindustri." She held up her hands as a black aura surrounded her while she disappeared.

"Soon." Both voices said at the same time.

* * *

Mister Chief is from the Neptunia manga where Vert gets kidnapped and Cave tries to rescue her. It's also where the OG division is mentioned.

As for Big Nep's comments about "uncomfortable truths", well, even if Nepgear wouldn't think anything of it, I'm sure Neptune was feeling really guilty by what she said/did while under Kurome's brainwashing and wanted to talk to her sister about it. At some level, Neptune probably thought those things (probably why she was so mean to Nepgear in Victory), but buried it because she did love her sister (seriously, other than Victory, Neptune and Nepgear are super close!).

As for Nepgear's mind being a bit scattered, well... Her emotional barriers that she had up for years are utterly shattered at this point in time, her emotions are flowing freely and rapidly right now.

* * *

"It's time for Nepstation with your hosts Rom..."

"...And Ram! Boy, Rom! Your angry face was awesome in the last chapter!"

"Well, I learned it from big sis."

"That was so cool! That must be why your hair turns blue in HDD then!"

"Maybe, I wonder if you'll take after Blanc too somehow?"

"Maybe I'll start swearing a lot!"

"Oh my, if you do that, I'll have to put your over my lap, bare your bottom and give you a spanking."

"Oh! It's Miss Vert."

"I wasn't going to swear! I promise!"

"Well, that's good. Hmm, a note from the author. "This is the end of the Healing Arc, up next, Showdown Arc". Hmm, I wonder what kind of showdown we'll have."

"Miss Vert, I hope it's not like one of your naughty games."

"Yeah, who wants to see a bunch of naked boys anyway?"

"...Ram, why is Miss Vert blushing and giggling?"

"I don't know. Oh! We're out of time! This is Ram..."

"...And Rom..."

"...And Vert, who's squirming at the thought of so many cute boys in skimpy outfits around me, signing off."

"Miss Vert is weird."

"Yeah!"

"You'll understand when you get older."


	26. Chapter 21

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

* * *

Several days later, Nepgear, Jupiter and Histoire were gathered in the living area of the Basilicom as Neptune and Croire, who was still looking a little sick, stood in front of a dark glowing portal.

"Do you really need to go?" Jupiter asked, getting a nod from Neptune.

"Yeppers! There's rare bugs out there to find and I'm sure Uzume and Tiny Me are worried about me, but it's okay." Neptune smiled brightly. "Your Histy has Tiny Me's Histy on speed dial. So if you ever need to talk to me, Tiny Me, Nepgear or anyone or want me to come visit, just give us a call. If we're not busy, we'll do what we can for you."

Nepgear nodded. "Neptune, I... I'm sorry that I've been an emotional wreck this past week, I'm usually not."

Neptune walked up to her and gave Nepgear a hug. "That's fine, I've enjoyed the time I spent with you, Nepgear." Neptune smiled as Nepgear hugged her back tightly. "I'm just a Histy call away. And even if I'm not there, Tiny Me usually is."

Nepgear nodded and after a few moments she let go of the hug. "Thank you."

"Um, Neptune..." Jupiter poked her fingers together as she looked at the taller girl shyly. "Can I call you big sis too?"

"Of course!" Neptune put her hands on her hips and smiled brightly. "This Nep already considers you to be her little sister anyway."

Jupiter smiled and hugged Neptune tightly, burying her face into Neptune's chest. "Thanks, big sis."

Neptune had a wide grin on her face as she hugged Jupiter back. "I love being called big sis! It feels so nice!"

"If you keep hugging them we'll be here forever." Croire commented by the portal, causing the two sisters to let go of each other and Neptune to walk up to the portal. "About time."

"You know, if you're this cranky, Crostie, you can go back into the Nep-note." Neptune smirked at her. "After all, you haven't been sick since the second day we were here."

Croire looked at her sharply. "How did you..?!"

Neptune giggled at her. "I've known you for awhile, Crostie, I figured I'd see if you'd run off or stick around. I know Tiny Me can open portals between worlds via Share Bridges, so I can get back to the Hyper Dimension at least."

Croire grumbled about this being the last time she was nice. "Yeah, yeah, well, I was mostly curious about how Nepgear was. Since we got here I figured I'd stick around and see how she was, that's all."

"D'aww!" Neptune grinned and hugged Croire, though she was careful not to squish the tome against her breasts too hard. "See? You don't hate CPUs as much as you say you do."

"Bah!" Croire had a look on her face like she ate something unpleasant. "I hate most CPUs. Your smaller self at least finds ways to be interesting. And this Nepgear, well, she was my first, so she's special."

Neptune, Nepgear and Jupiter's eyes all went white, blank and were surrounded by black outlines. "Crostie! Nepgear!" Neptune's voice was shocked. "How naughty!"

"...Sis did things with a tome?" Jupiter asked, trying to figure it out. She didn't know exactly what "being someone's first" really meant in this context, but she knew it meant something important.

"Th..That...That's not at all what happened!" Nepgear protested, her face red.

"You dingus!" Croire's face was just as red as she squirmed out of Neptune's grasp. "That's not at all what I meant and you know it!" She coughed to clear her throat and try and calm down. "She was the first time I had ever inserted myself into history, back before I got bored with just recording it."

Neptune suddenly broke out into laughter. "Oh, I know. Anyway," she smiled and turned to Nepgear and Jupiter. "Take care, okay?" She turned to Histoire and waved. "Take care, Histy!"

Histoire smiled at her. "Neptune, I want you to know that you are welcome back in our dimension at any time. And..." She looked at Nepgear for a moment before turning back to Neptune. "You've done a lot of good while you were here."

"It's not like I helped save the world, I just spent time with Nepgear." Neptune protested and looked at Nepgear, who looked very relaxed and almost content. "And Nepgear, practice smiling, okay?" Nepgear jerked in surprise. "Your smiling muscles haven't been used for so long that you need work on them, okay? You're too pretty to not smile more."

Nepgear felt her face flushing at that. "O...Okay." She could try. 'Didn't Anonydeath say something similar?'

"Bah! Come on!" Croire grumbled as the group said their goodbyes for a bit more before Neptune grabbed her and they walked through the portal.

After the portal closed, Nepgear closed her eyes and let out a soft breath. 'Thank you, Onee-chan... Thank you so much.' She thought to herself before looking at Jupiter, who was looking at her with a small smile on her face. "...You know what?" Jupiter tilted her head in confusion. "It's time. Tomorrow, I'm going to announce you to all of Planeptune as my little sister." Jupiter's eyes started to sparkle in wonder. "Histoire, I'd like you to get things set up."

Histoire smiled at that and nodded. "Of course, Nepgear." She floated towards the door and stopped. "Nepgear," she turned to look at her CPU, "I'm proud of you."

After Histoire left, Jupiter looked at Nepgear. "Um, sis..." Nepgear looked at her. "I dunno why, but I just remembered this." She opened up her inventory and pulled out a purple disk. "Remember when I was in the other nations?"

Nepgear nodded and for once her visage didn't darken at that. "Yes. What's with that disk?"

"When I was in Leanbox, apparently one of the Anti-CPU faction members had it. I saved her thinking she was a random civilian and..." She handed it to Nepgear, who took it. "It's a Monster Containment Disk."

"What!?" Nepgear's eyes widened in shock. "How?! That shouldn't be possible!"

Jupiter shook her head. "I don't know. I know it has Planeptune tech in it though." Nepgear didn't know she could be more shocked, but hearing that proved her wrong. "I was told it wasn't hidden and that you wouldn't do it..."

"I would never make such a vile, disgusting thing." Nepgear growled as she tossed the disk into the air, ignited her beam sword and slashed several times, destroying it. As the pieces fell to the ground, she let out a sigh. "Do the other CPUs..?"

Jupiter shook her head. "No. I only found out because Anny called me..."

"...Anny?" Nepgear asked with a raised eyebrow. "Effeminate voice, calls me Honey all the time, really good hacker?" Jupiter nodded. "His real name's Anonydeath, or at least that's what he calls himself." She would have said more, but her sister's determined look stopped her. "What?"

"Nepgear... Why do you have a hacker working for you? Why do you use him to spy on everyone?"

Nepgear sighed softly. "...I deserve this much at least." Seeing Jupiter looking at her with a bit of anger actually surprised Nepgear, but she continued on. "I was scared."

"...Huh?" Of all the answers Jupiter could expect, THAT was not one of them.

"They killed Neptune, Jupiter. And I met and hired Anonydeath a bit before you were born." Nepgear walked towards the balcony, with Jupiter following after her. "I was scared of the other CPUs. I wanted nothing to do with them, but I was worried that their peace treaty was just a sham to make me lower my guard so they could come in and make me watch as they destroyed Planeptune before they did me in like what they did to Neptune."

"...You know that they're sorry, right?" Jupiter said softly. She sighed when Nepgear stiffened in shock. "I... When I was in Lowee, I heard from White Heart's maid that she regrets what she did and that she cries over what happened. And Green Heart even said that they aren't the same as they were during the wars."

Nepgear rested her forehead on the glass door to the balcony. "...I've been consumed by hatred towards those three for so long, Jupiter that it's hard for me to just let it go. When I think about them, there's a cold, achy void in my chest." She took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "I just wanted them to leave me alone, but I..." She shook her head. "I guess I might have to scrap those projects."

"...Sis?"

Nepgear looked at Jupiter. "Tell me something. Since you spent time with the other CPUs... What do you think about them?"

"...I like their sisters, I'd like to think of their sisters as my friends at least. Green Heart's boobs are scary, White Heart and Black Heart, um... They don't seem bad, their sisters think highly of them and told me lots of funny stories, Uni discovered that Black Heart likes to cosplay. Or when Rom and Ram dumped paint and feathers over White Heart. And apparently Green Heart likes to look at naked boys kissing each other."

Nepgear raised an eyebrow, she wasn't sure if she found that impressive, hilarious or just plain weird. "...Why are Green Heart's boobs scary?"

"She hugs you to them and then you suffocate!" Jupiter pouted.

"I guess that is terrifying." Nepgear said softly. She didn't mind large breasts, after all, both Purple Heart and the adult Neptune had nice, big and bouncy boobs.

Before Jupiter could respond, there was a loud explosion that caused both of the sisters to lose their balance. "The hell!?" Both of them yelled at the same time.

"Sis!" Jupiter pointed at a floating, glowing person. "Who's that?"

"I don't know." Nepgear said as she transformed into Lilac Heart. "Stay here."

"But I..."

Lilac Heart looked at Jupiter. "I don't know how long you can stay transformed since people aren't putting faith in you directly." She had a genuinely remorseful look on her face over that. "I'm truly sorry, I should have introduced you sooner."

Jupiter nodded. "Take care, sis."

(-)

A minute prior...

"I think it's time, don't you?" The woman's darker half asked softly. The woman was standing on a rather tall skyscraper that overlooked the city.

"Gee hee hee hee! About time! I was getting bored!" Energy covered her body as she transformed, two horns appeared on her head, in front of them were two triangle-shaped hair accessories, around her neck was a blue crystal choker, her arms and legs were covered by a black bodysuit, as was her abdomen and crotch, shockingly, her thighs were left uncovered, as was most of her breasts, having only a small flap covering that went from the outside of her breasts to her nipples being covered, allowing the rest of her large breasts to be exposed to the air. In her hand a staff with a circular top on it appeared and started glowing. "Let's see... How about we just get her attention, huh?"

"I can agree to that." The other voice said as the woman's left eye was dark in color, compared to her bright, blue right eye, the left half of her long hair was a dark orange color and on her left arm a circular shield had formed.

The woman grinned as two large, demonic wings formed on her back and she floated into the air. Her staff started to glow with power before she pointed it at the Basilicom and fired an attack at the building, causing it to shake and rumble. "There, a little shock-wave and imaginary explosion and she should be... There she is."

Lilac Heart flew towards the floating person in the air, in her mind, that was the only person who could have launched that attack. "You!" Pointing her gunblade at the person, she narrowed her eyes. "Who are you?"

The woman looked genuinely hurt. "I work for you for years and you don't recognize me? The stuttering older woman that B-Sha calls Lei-Lei all the time?"

"You're okay?" Lilac Heart asked, surprise on her face. "B-Sha was worried about you. But..." Confusion came to her face. "How are you... Wait..." She narrowed her eyes as she got a better look at Lei-Lei. "You're a CPU?!"

"Bing bong!" Lei-Lei said, though Nepgear heard a second voice in there. "I'm just an old CPU that wanted to talk to you."

"If you worked for me then you know..." Lilac Heart was interrupted as Lei-Lei started to laugh.

"You don't trust CPUs? Of course I do." She put her hand over her chest and grinned while raising one eyebrow upwards. "You think I didn't hear your rants to Histoire about how you hated the other three CPUs? Or how many times you cried to her about your dead older sister..." She shook her head and sighed dramatically.

"And what's the point of this? Just who are you?"

Lei-Lei sighed and shook her head. "I swear, young kids have no appreciation for drama. Allow me to continue. As I was saying, I heard you cry about the previous CPU, Purple Heart, so many times. But as I got to know you, well, as well as anyone could get to know a frigid loner like you."

Lilac Heart twitched softly. 'Is that how people really view me?'

Lei-Lei shrugged at her. "Anyway, as I was saying, you and I aren't too dissimilar." She grinned at Lilac Heart. "In fact, if anyone can understand me, it's you."

"What are you saying?" Lilac Heart asked in confusion.

"Gee hee hee..." Lei-Lei smirked at her. "Your heart... It's full of hate." Lilac Heart's eyes widened in surprise. "For you, it's because you hate the other CPUs, me? Well, us, I guess, but anyway, my hatred isn't for the CPUs of this world, but rather the people."

Lilac Heart narrowed her eyes and gripped her gunblade tightly. "If you know me like you say you know me, you should know that I would never want harm brought upon the citizens of Gamindustri."

Lei-Lei gave her an annoyed look. "Wow, I always thought you were nothing more than a whiny crybaby who talks a big game, but now I see that I was wrong. You're just a little brat who keeps crying for her dead older sister." She shook her head in annoyance. "I was seriously going to let you have your revenge on the CPUs of the other nations."

"Enough." Lei-Lei's deeper voice spoke up. "Allow me to talk to her."

"...There's two of you in there?" Lilac Heart asked, surprised.

"Yes." The deeper voice spoke up. "My name's Uzume Tennouboshi, or rather, I was, before I fused with this woman."

"...Uzume..." Lilac Heart's eyes widened. "I've heard of you!"

Lei-Lei showed complete shock. "You shouldn't have, I erased everyone's memories of me when I was alive. But if you heard of me, then you should know that I'm your senior as I was a previous CPU of Planeptune."

"So this is how you're a CPU, Lei-Lei?" Lilac Heart asked as she gripped her gunblade. "You somehow revived a previous Planeptune CPU and merged with her?"

"Ah ah ah!" Lei-Lei waggled her finger at Lilac Heart. "Close, but not quite. See, my real name is Rei. Rei Ryghts." She grinned at Lilac Heart. "I was the CPU of the ancient nation of Tari and Gamindustri's first True Goddess." Lilac Heart's eyes widened in shock. "By the way, how does it feel to kill that bitch Arfoire, who not only defeated me but sealed my powers and memories? Took me ages to regain my memories and even this much of my power back."

"...How are you still alive?"

Rei grinned at Lilac Heart. "See? There's some advantages to being the One True Goddess of Gamindustri. Even if you lose all your followers and power, you won't turn human or die."

"So that's how you could be alive for so long." Lilac Heart muttered to herself.

"Can I continue here?" Uzume's deeper voice asked. "Anyway, Lilac Heart, you should know that the people of Planeptune turned on me, betrayed me and demanded I be treated as a witch and executed. I sealed myself away and erased their memories of me. But after being alone for the past few centuries, well... You can imagine that I want my revenge as well."

"So," the two began speaking as one, "what's your choice, Lilac Heart?" Camera drones flew up and surrounded them at that moment, broadcasting everything to the people of Planeptune, who stopped and stared in shock as they saw their CPU facing off against another CPU. "Will you join us in our quest for vengance, or will you get in our way?"

Rei smirked at her. "You should know that your subjects would follow you into the Netherworld without question if you asked them to. So go ahead, join us, your people will gladly take up arms once more against the CPUs that wronged this nation."

Looking down, Lilac Heart saw the people of Planeptune, she could feel their confusion, their fear and their anxiety. "You know, you're right. If I asked them to, they would march against Demons, CPUs or more, without question." Lilac Heart closed her eyes and took a deep breath before opening them and glaring at Rei. "However, I will never ask them to go down the path of vengeance for my petty desires. I will never choose that path!"

Rei scoffed at her. "Well, too bad, I guess we'll have to..." Her eyes widened as Lilac Heart disappeared and was in front of her in a flash. Grunting, she blocked Lilac Heart's gunblade with her staff. "Hey! That's not..." She grunted as Lilac Heart continued to swing her gunblade and Rei was forced to block several times. Snarling, Rei held up her left arm and used her shield to block the attack before her wings seemingly turned into hands, one of which grabbed Lilac Heart by her leg and lifted her into the air where she was spun around a few times before being thrown down at super high speeds to the ground, where she crashed into the ground hard enough to leave a crater. "Seriously! Who doesn't give the big bad a chance to monologue? How rude!"

Lilac Heart shook her head and got back up. Without saying a word, she turned and sprung into the air, her blade clashing with Rei's staff. The two clashed their weapons several times as Lilac Heart chased Rei across the skyline of Planeptune, the camera drones continued to record and broadcast the confrontation to all of Planeptune as the clashes erupted in loud shock-waves across the sky. Eventually the two ended up just outside of the city, but still relatively close to it.

"How about you just chill?" Lilac Heart asked as she clashed with Rei again before pushing Rei away and pointed her gunblade at her before firing a blue beam at the other CPU.

Holding up her left arm, Rei's eyes widened as her shield and left arm were quickly encased in ice. "The hell?!"

"You do realize that I've rarely taken time to have fun, right?" Lilac Heart asked her. "You worked for me, you should know that."

Rei snarled at her. "You spent all your time working in the office or doing quests!"

"I also have a nasty habit of pulling multiple all-nighters and only stopping when I pass out." Lilac Heart looked at Rei as if she were an idiot. "And what little spare time I had was generally reserved for finding ways to defeat enemy CPUs."

"I told you that she might be more difficult that you could imagine." Uzume's voice was heard.

"Shut up!" Rei snapped back.

"Hmm, no." Uzume chuckled. "So, how do we deal with her?" A black flash of energy and the ice around her left arm was shattered.

Rei smirked as an idea came to her. "Well, how about we show her just how delusional she really is?"

"I can agree to that." Uzume said and snapped her fingers.

Lilac Heart's eyes widened as she felt power surge around her. "Wha...the..." Her body went stiff and her eyes went dull as her body glowed with dark energy.

Rei chuckled as she floated close to the immobilized Lilac Heart. "Normally this is where your heart would become twisted and any sort of hidden negative feelings you have would be brought to the surface..."

"...But I'll give you a break, you'll have a pleasant experience." Uzume finished as Rei made her staff disappear and it was replaced by a purple glowing sword. "How long should she get?"

"A minute." Rei replied as she floated over to Lilac Heart, who was still stuck in that same position, her eyes vacant. "Ah, if only you had joined us." She cupped Lilac Heart's chin and sneered. "Such a worthless CPU."

(-)

"Nepgear... Nepgear..."

Nepgear groaned as she shook her head. "What was I..?" Her eyes widened and she gasped in shock as she saw Neptune in front of her, smiling. "Neptune?"

The small, short haired girl smiled brightly at her. "Yeppers! It's time to get up, silly! We got a big day ahead of us!"

"We do?" Nepgear was confused, something felt off.

A flash of light and Neptune was replaced by Purple Heart, who grinned at her. "Of course, there's some quests to take care of, after that, how about we go on a picnic?"

Nepgear's eyes sparkled in happiness. "A picnic? Sure! I love those!" She reached for Purple Heart's hand but stopped as she saw it flicker with a black mist.

"What's wrong, Nep Jr.?" Purple Heart asked softly. "Oh, I know, you're still scared by lightning, is that it?" Lightning suddenly flashed outside. "Don't worry, even nature can't beat your big sister."

'Something seems off, but...' Nepgear found herself smiling. 'It feels right.'

(-)

"I'm bored!" Rei groused.

"It's been twenty seconds." Uzume shot back, annoyance in her voice.

"Well, whatever, twenty seconds, a minute? What's the difference?"

"Forty seconds."

"Shut up!" Rei shot back and gripped Gehaburn tightly. "You should have just joined us." Rei whispered softly and turned to the cameras. "Citizens of Planeptune, you can watch as I end your worthless CPU's life right here and now!"

Holding up her hands above her head, Rei turned to Lilac Heart and grinned savagely. "DIE!" She swung the cursed sword down at Lilac Heart, fully intending to end the CPU's life.

Rei grinned as she felt her sword connect with something, but that grin slowly faded away into confusion as she saw that her sword wasn't cutting through flesh and blood, but instead were being held in place by two serrated broadswords, which were held in front of her sword in a X-cross pattern. Connected to the two broadswords was a girl with long purple hair that hung loosely behind her, she was a little shorter than Nepgear was, a modest chest, well, compared to how big Rei was in HDD at least. Her outfit was made up of blue leggings with purple highlights that went from her ankles up to her waist, black boots over her feet, a loose skirt over her hips, her abdomen was exposed and her top was purple in color that covered her arms, hands, neck, shoulders and breasts completely with a stylized black "N" over her chest. "Who the hell are you?"

The girl's eyes were a bright green and Rei could see the power symbol there and as she looked at the girl's back in shock, she saw four wings of light, all purple in color. "Get away from my sister **YOU BITCH!**" She screamed and slashed outwards, sending Rei tumbling through the air with a yell for a moment.

(-)

The people of Planeptune were in a state of confusion. After seeing their CPU fighting off a strange new CPU, they were starting to panic and some fell to their knees in despair as it looked like their CPU was about to be killed when Lilac Heart stopped moving and the other CPU pulled out a purple sword.

When another new CPU suddenly showed up, protecting Lilac Heart, everyone had hope, but were still confused by what was going on.

_"Who the hell are you?"_ The two-toned CPU asked the newcomer.

_"Get away from my sister **YOU BITCH!**"_ The newcomer screamed and everyone gasped in shock.

"Lady Lilac Heart has a sister?"

"How come none of us knew?"

"You think she's lying?"

"No way! Look! Her processor has a N on it! That's Planeptune's symbol!"

"Go Lilac Sister!" One of the people in the crowd started cheering. "Come on! If she's Lady Lilac Heart's sister, then let's cheer for her!"

One person in Planeptune wasn't caring about all of that as she watched the fight. "Lei-Lei..." B-Sha whispered and ran out of the Basilicom.

"Where are you going?" One of the co-workers asked her.

"I don't know!" B-Sha answered her. "But I don't want to lose my friend or my CPU!"

(-)

As she flew through the air, Rei sneered at the CPU Candidate. "So, you claim to be her sister? You aren't Purple Heart."

"My name is Jupiter!" Jupiter yelled as she snapped her arm out, throwing one of her swords at Rei. "I am Planeptune's CPU Candidate, Lilac Sister!"

"Feh!" Rei batted the sword away with her left arm and watched as Jupiter pulled it back to her. "Oh? You had it connected to a chain?"

Grabbing her sword as Jupiter pulled it back, the chain disappeared as soon as it was back in her hands. "Yep." She held her swords wide and apart, putting her body in a T-shape stance. Her swords started to glow white. "Blade slicer!" They were engulfed in energy that made them look five times larger than they really were and she rushed at Rei. "TAKE THIS!"

Rei smirked at Jupiter as the blades seemingly passed through her form in a black mist. "Really? I'm the oldest CPU in Gamindustri. I've been here so long that I predate the four nations, kiddo, you think I didn't have to put down people who could fight before?" Pointing Gehaburn at Jupiter, red lightning crackled over the blade for a moment before lancing out and blasting the CPU Candidate, causing her to scream in pain while Rei laughed. "Yes! That's right! Scream! Cry! Bleed! THEN DIE!" She swung Gehaburn to the side, sending the still crackling, screaming and twitching Jupiter careening to the ground.

"CPU Candidates are unusual." Uzume warned Rei. "There was one in Lowee when I reigned over Planeptune, and she always seemed to be able to pull miracles out of her ass."

"Oh?" Rei was surprised at that. "What happened to her?"

"I don't remember. I remember that Lowee's CPU at the time was a total bitch. Really strict and distasteful." Uzume huffed in annoyance. "She always had to be bigger than everyone else, promoted her stuff as having more of everything compared to everyone else, though her controller was just weird. Personally, I'm glad she's gone. Not just because we were rivals, but because she was such a snob."

Rei looked at where Lilac Heart was at and sighed, the battle with Lilac Sister had taken them some distance from the CPU. "I wonder what she's dreaming about right now." Oh well, it didn't matter, she was going to kill Lilac Heart right here and now. "Well, not now, I have to get over to her." She sighed, hating certain phrases and expressions.

(-)

"Hey, Nep Jr." Purple Heart gave Nepgear a grin as the two fought against Black Heart, White Heart and Green Heart in a forest. "You know, this isn't too bad of a way to spend time together." The other three CPUs were on the ground, groaning in pain, deep sword cuts to their bodies as they lay there, twitching and bleeding.

Nepgear was hyperventilating, her pupils were small as she looked at the broken bodies of the CPUs. "Yes..." She started to giggle and laugh. "Yes! This is... This is what I wanted!" She turned to look at Purple Heart, who was, for some reason, twitching and glowing softly. "See? Sis! This is what we should do! We should do this together and..."

"This isn't what you really want, you know." Nepgear's eyes widened in shock as Purple Heart looked at her but was speaking with Neptune's voice. "Gosh, hold on." A moment later, she was back in her human form letting out a breath of air. "Whew! That took awhile to get through that interference. Blasted predecessor and her send-you-to-a-warped-dream-world ability."

"...What's going on?" Nepgear asked as the scenery faded and changed to the Planeptune Basilicom's living room.

Neptune grinned at her. "Silly Nep Jr.! It's me! Your big sister! The one who was killed in Celestia."

Nepgear's eyes widened and she gasped in shock. "W...What?" She put her hands over her mouth as Neptune nodded at her. "I...Is that really you?"

Neptune had a sad smile on her face. "Yeah. You know, being dead kind of sucks, I can't eat any pudding, I can't even interact with the living world very often."

"Nep...Tune? But... This is a dream, isn't it?"

Neptune gave her a nod. "Yeah, well... It's kind of weird, I never was able to interact with you like this before." She crossed her arms behind her back and started strutting around. "Do you remember when you went to Celestia and killed that one woman? Arfoire?" Nepgear nodded and Neptune looked at her sadly. "You remember when you saw the other CPUs? You were about to attack them."

"But I stopped..." Nepgear said softly. "I thought I saw you."

"That's because you did." Neptune answered. "Every time you thought that I was there giving you a hug or looking at you..." She chuckled softly. "That was me interacting with you."

"...You were there... All these years?" Nepgear asked, getting a nod from Neptune. "...Then you knew..."

"That you wanted to kill yourself?" Neptune asked, looking sad. "Yeah. My biggest regret was leaving you alone, Nep Jr., but that doesn't even compare to the regrets I have after seeing you suffer. It was the most painful thing I went through. Every time you cried in your sleep, or asked for help and I couldn't do anything, it made the pain worse. By the way, love the memorial park," she gave Nepgear a thumbs up.

Nepgear slumped to her knees, laughing weakly. "First the big version of you shows up, then she calls another version of you... And now I find out that your spirit has been with me for ten years... What a week." She sniffled softly. "Neptune... I... I was so lonely."

"But you aren't alone." Neptune smiled at her. "And I'm not talking about my spirit haunting you and keeping you from acting on your hatred, I'm talking about someone else."

Nepgear blinked in confusion before Neptune pointed at the far wall and Nepgear's eyes widened in shock as she saw herself with Jupiter, both standing and, to her surprise, both were smiling happily at the camera with Nepgear bent over slightly, her hands on Jupiter's shoulders while her sister had her hands out in a "V" shape. "But I never smile..."

"This is your inner world, Nep Jr.," Neptune answered her, "you smile in here. Anyway, she's our younger sister and she's been there for you for all these years, looking out for you and helping you."

Nepgear looked down. "...But why? It doesn't..." She paused as she felt a hand on her shoulders. Looking up, she saw Neptune smiling at her softly.

"CPUs are brought into the world due to the people's wishes. So what do you think their wish was for you?"

"...To... To... To not be alone?" Nepgear asked, getting a broad smile from Neptune.

"There ya go, Nep Jr.!"

Nepgear chuckled softly. "I feel like my rep as a cold hearted bitch is completely gone."

"Is it a bad thing?" Neptune asked as she stepped back and did a pirouette for some random reason.

"...I don't think it is." Nepgear said. "...Hey, Neptune... Why did you want to make friends with the other CPUs?"

"Originally? I just wanted to be friends with them. But after things got violent?" Neptune sighed softly. "I hated the war. I never wanted to fight! I wanted to have fun! I wanted to explore Gamindustri! I wanted to have a place where children can have fun without worrying about fighting and killing others! I wanted the other CPUs to have that too." She looked at Nepgear and smiled. "And most importantly, I wanted you to live a better life than I had." She sighed sadly. "I guess I failed, huh? You couldn't let go of your anger and hate of them."

"I'm sorry..." Nepgear looked down, ashamed.

"No, no!" Neptune waved her hands and shook her head wildly. "It's not your fault, Nep Jr.! It's mine! I should have tried harder."

"...Can we just stay like this?" Nepgear asked Neptune softly. "Forever?"

Neptune suddenly frowned, stood up and marched over to Nepgear. "No way, Gosay!"

"...I don't think that's the right way to say that."

Neptune shook her head and poked Nepgear in the chest. "That's besides the point! Listen, Nep Jr., you need to go back! There are people who need you. Your sister loves you! And you and Histy need to become friends! Plus!" Neptune stopped for a moment. "You need to let go of your hatred for the other CPUs... You need to make friends with them."

"...I held onto that hate for so long, Neptune..."

"I know..." Neptune nodded as the scenery changed and they were suddenly in the downtown area of Planeptune. Pointing behind Nepgear, the dead CPU gave her a sad look. "That's what I've been fighting against for ten years."

Turning, Nepgear's eyes widened and she stood up, yelling in shock.

The creature was vaguely human, though it was as tall as a two story building, the head was nothing more than a black skull, the hands were black bones and its bony chest was exposed, but the outfit? It looked like a cloak made out of black sludge and slime.

"That..."

"That's your hatred, Nepgear." Neptune's voice was replaced by Purple Heart as her sister, now in HDD, walked between Nepgear and the large mass of hate. "I've hurt it and driven it away many times, and it's gotten a lot weaker in the past week, but it keeps coming back and is still here."

The creature screamed and fired a black energy blast at a distant building, vaporizing it in an instant.

"You have to choose, Nepgear!" Purple Heart yelled while the explosion caused winds to pick up and her twin braided tails to whip violently behind her as she held her katana in front of her. "Will you stand against the darkness in your heart or will you allow it to take control and consume you?"

A flash of light and Nepgear was replaced by Lilac Heart as she stood next to Purple Heart. "I'll fight."

Purple Heart smiled. "That's my little sister. Let's go. For the future of Planeptune, the future of Gamindustri..."

"And my own future." Lilac Heart finished as the two rushed the mass of hatred.

* * *

So, the next few chapters are basically one long-running fight.

And yes, Rei-Uzume is full of hax.

No Nepstations until the end of the fight.

BTW, Nepgear's hatred is based off of Hexxus from Ferngully. Average movie, weak villain, but he looked cool at the end.


	27. Chapter 22

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

Just a reminder, for those who think otherwise, Uzume isn't the Uzume we all know and love, but rather Kurome, as her name was Uzume until both Neptunes re-named her Kurome.

* * *

"Hand me the sword." Uzume said to Rei. "You can barely hold it and you swing it around like a baseball bat."

"You fight with a megaphone." Rei countered as she looked to the left.

Her head turned right. "Yes, but I also use my fists, meaning I have more experience with melee fighting than you do."

"And you have the shield on that arm." Rei countered as she turned her head to the left. "So forgive me for not wanting you to have the sword on the same arm as your shield."

Her head turned right and anger was in Uzume's eyes. "So sorry that you destroyed my body, my other half, all living things in the Zero Dimension and screwed up my powers when we fused together..." Sarcasm was heavy in her voice. "That reminds me, you should know that I can't send anyone else into a delusional state today."

Her head turned left and Rei sneered. "Because you're not in your body?"

Uzume turned the head to the right. "That and I'm not in the Heart Dimension anymore. Oh, don't worry, I still have other powers, but doing that isn't possible for today. Anyway, hand me the sword."

"Fine." Rei muttered as she passed Gehaburn to Uzume. "Just finish her off."

"Sure, as much as I hate to hurt my junior like this, I might as well get her out of the way." Uzume sounded almost whimsical.

Rei looked to her left in surprise. "You're upset about this?"

"We're both Planeptune CPUs." Uzume turned her head to the right and smirked. "If your practices hadn't led to the Great Calamity, you'd understand." Shrugging, she floated near Lilac Heart and held Gehaburn up again. "Alright, once more, time for you to GAAAAH!" Uzume and Rei both screamed in tremendous pain as she arched her back and nearly let go of Gehaburn.

Below them, panting and crackling with electrical energy still, Jupiter was twitching in pain. "Guh... M...Missed." She had been aiming for the crazy CPU's arm, but the blade had twisted didn't hit her.

When the screaming CPU turned to look at her, Jupiter's eyes widened in shock. "...Okay, I didn't mean for THAT to happen!"

Jupiter's sword was lodged in Rei's body...

...In her left breast...

...And the Ancient CPU was still screaming.

"Well, whatever works, right?" Jupiter muttered as she called up her chain to her sword and pulled on it. "GET OVER HERE!"

The scream that Rei and Uzume let out went from incredibly painful to blood-curdling as the left breast on their body was yanked before a tearing sensation happened and the bottom of her breast tore off, leaving a bloody and chunky mess behind.

"YOU BITCH!" Rei and Uzume screamed at the same time as they glowed and lightning started crashing down around them. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH THIS HURTS?!"

Jupiter couldn't answer as her body was consumed by lightning strikes causing her to scream in pain.

(-)

The citizens of Planeptune were all grimacing in sympathy, some of the women with larger breasts were covering their chests up and whimpering.

Even the guys were grimacing, imagining that it must have felt like getting kicked between the legs.

"What's that?" Someone asked as two shadows flew over-head and towards the battle.

The shadows had gone by so fast that no one could figure out if they had seen anything or just imagined it.

(-)

Panting, Rei glared, murder in her eyes as her breast slowly returned to normal. "Being Immortal means I'll heal from things like this, BUT IT STILL FUCKING HURTS!"

On the ground, Jupiter twitched and struggled to move her body as lightning continued to crackle over her. "Ngh..." Her right eye was closed as she tried to lift her head. 'Dammit, I can't... Move anymore.'

"You know what?" Rei smirked. "What do you say we get rid of the bitch that tore my boob apart?"

"I can agree to that." Uzume nodded and pointed Gehaburn down at Jupiter.

"DIE!" Both of them screamed and dive-bombed Jupiter, who could only watch in dismay.

'Sis... Older sis... Rom... Ram... I'm sorry.' The image of Uni flashed in her mind and she smiled softly. 'Uni, I really wish I had told you who I really was, please forgive me.'

Rei cackled in laughter before a glint of something to her right caught her eye. Turning, she could only watch as a large sword glowing with multiple colors struck out and hit her sword.

"Tri-Color Order!" Black Heart yelled, her eyes narrowed as she knocked Rei off course.

"What the hell?!" Rei screamed in shock. "What? How?! WHY?!"

"Jupiter!" Uni called out as she landed next to the downed CPU Candidate. "Here! A panacea." She pulled out a tablet and shoved it into the other girl's mouth and forced her to swallow it.

Coughing as she recovered, Jupiter stared at Uni. "B...But how are you here?"

"I flew, silly." Uni smirked at her and helped her up before hugging her. "If you think I'm going to let my friend fight alone and die, you got another thing coming."

Jupiter hugged her back and teared up. "Thank you."

In the sky Rei sneered at Black Heart. "So what if you're here!? A weakened CPU who has so few shares I'm surprised she can transform, her little sister who's in the same boat and a CPU Candidate that no one knew about until now. Think I'm scared about a bunch of weaklings? And how did you get here anyway?"

Black Heart smirked at her. "When given the choice to follow Lilac Heart's orders, which would lead to her and her sister dying, or disobeying her orders so that we could help them against an unknown CPU, what do you think the good soldiers at the border chose to do?"

Rei sneered at that. "People should just listen to what their CPU tells them to do, the fact that even this cold hearted bitch has followers who disobey her is proof that this world needs to be purged!"

"Heh..." Uzume smirked.

"What's so funny?!" Rei turned to the left and yelled at her other half.

"I'm surprised, even in my time the rivalry between the four nations would have prevented this from happening. CPUs of today sure are a lot softer."

Black Heart narrowed her eyes. "What's going on?"

Jupiter and Uni flew up by Black Heart. "I don't know," Jupiter answered her. "From what I can tell, it's like there's two people there at the same time."

"Bing bong!" Rei smirked at her. "My name's Rei Ryghts..."

"...And I'm Uzume Tennouboshi." A deeper voice came out of the same mouth.

"...Reizume?" Jupiter suddenly asked, getting a sweat-drop from the others.

"...That's not a bad name, actually..." The higher pitched voice said. "What say you?"

"Whatever, I guess I'm Reizume now. I guess it's better than being named something stupid just because I'm half of who I was."

The newly named Reizume smirked as a staff formed in her right hand. "Well then... How about you all fry and..." Her eyes widened and her wings snapped in front of her as more than a five dozen spears suddenly slammed into her wings from all sides at the same time.

"Blast, and I had so hoped that would have worked too..." A familiar voice spoke up and Jupiter turned to see Green Heart floating behind her. "It's been far too long since we fought against an enemy CPU that I forgot how difficult it can be to get the drop on them."

Reizume growled and spread her wings out. "One more, huh?! Fine! You can all just perish together! In fact!" A savage grin came to her face as she raised an eyebrow. "I can't wait to show you weakling CPUs just how pathetic you really are."

Black Heart twitched. 'How does she know?' The truth was that the CPUs of Leanbox, Lowee and Lastation were not quite as strong as they had been during the end of the Console Wars as their shares had slowly decreased over the years, but it was such a gradual thing that hardly anyone knew about it.

Jupiter, on the other hand, was looking at where Lilac Heart was hovering and glowing. 'Sis, what's going on with you? Hurry up! We need you!'

(-)

The city-scape was in ruins, buildings destroyed, cars exploded, fires erupting around them, the sky was turning brown from the ash in the air.

Yet still, the two fought against the sludge and muck of Nepgear's hatred, even as it spewed black flames and black energy at them.

"Blaze..." Purple Heart began as her sword lit up with flames.

"LAUNCHER!" Lilac Heart yelled as she fired a strong blast at the mass of hatred, her sister's flames connected with the beam and turned it into a fire stream that slammed into the thing's head, exploding and causing it to scream in pain. "It's... It's not working." She said softly as she saw the results of her attack, a cracked skull and nothing more.

"Nepgear, you can't give up." Purple Heart said as she held her sword up, a stylized V forming behind her. "Victory SLASH!" She rushed forward, slashing twice as an energy wave in a V shape rushed out and slammed into the mass of hate, causing it to cry out in a weird chirping, gargling sound as its hand was severed as Purple Heart passed by the thing.

Lilac Heart pursed her lips as an idea came to her. 'If this is all in my head, then...' Closing her eyes, hundreds of Histoires suddenly formed around her, their wings glowing and they rushed at the mass of hate, all saying various things that jumbled together and were indistinguishable from each other.

Watching the Histoires fly into the mass of hate, tearing off parts of the cloak and exploding against the body, Purple Heart sweat-dropped and floated over to her sister, who had wide grin on her face. "...Nepgear, I'm almost afraid to ask, but why..."

"You have NO idea how much I've wanted to do that to her over the years!" Lilac Heart giggled, somewhat giddy. "Let me vent my frustration this way."

Purple Heart nodded slowly. "Nepgear, you need to talk to Histy and make friends with her."

"I know, but let me get my frustration with her out first." Lilac Heart said. "Besides, they're all saying stuff that I hated hearing when I was learning to be a CPU."

Purple Heart blinked and listened in more closely.

"You can't play games, there's paperwork to do."

"You can have fun after you get caught up."

"A proper CPU puts her people before herself."

"A CPU's first duty is to her citizens."

"A proper CPU makes sure all the work is done."

"A proper CPU does quests for her citizens."

Purple Heart shook her head and looked at how giddy Lilac Heart was as the Histoires saying that flew in and exploded. "...Okay, you can have your fun, just don't hurt Histy when you get out of here."

"...Can I crumple her bookmark at least? She deserves that much."

"Nepgear..." Purple Heart sighed and gave her sister a disappointed look.

"Sorry." Lilac Heart blushed at the look she was getting. "Fine, I won't hurt Histoire when I get out of here."

"Good girl." Purple Heart smiled. She supposed there was no harm in letting Nepgear vent like this. After all, it was only in her head. If Nepgear found this to be cathartic, then who was she to complain?

"Your actions and attitude are unbecoming of a CPU."

"You'll be a failure of a CPU..."

Purple Heart looked at Lilac Heart and floated even closer to her sister. "Nepgear... You know that she didn't mean that." She sighed and hugged Lilac Heart as she said nothing. "You need to talk to her."

"...It still hurt." Lilac Heart muttered softly, enjoying the hug from her elder sister.

"They say we hurt the ones we love the most." Purple Heart let go of Lilac Heart and turned to face the mass of hatred. "Nepgear, no matter how much we fight against this, it won't go away until you're truly willing to let go."

Lilac Heart shuddered and shook her head. "No, it's not that. That mass... It's just the outer part, it's the symptom."

Purple Heart gave her a contemplative look. "If we blasted away the outer shell then... The core of your hatred would be exposed?"

Lilac Heart nodded as the last of the exploding Histoires were used up. "Yes, but I..."

"Then allow your sister to show you her true power." Purple Heart flew into the air before doing a mid-air flip of all things and glowing which shocked Lilac Heart as Purple Heart was replaced by a stylish jet of all things that flew at high speeds around the blob of hatred.

"REEEE!" The hatred screamed and fired a blast of black flames at the jet, which dodged to the side.

"It is truly time for you to go." Purple Jet said before firing several missiles at the blob. The tops of the missiles opened up and fired more than a dozen smaller missiles each, causing a massive explosion that, when the smoke cleared, revealed more than half of the goopy cloak missing and nothing but bones underneath.

"...What the heck was that?!" Lilac Heart asked, shocked as the jet returned to being Purple Heart.

"I call it my HDD Neptune." Purple Heart answered her. "Before you ask, I never used it in the Console Wars. I was always afraid that if I did the other CPUs would do something dangerous to try and catch up. And if I used it when we weren't in Celestia..." She shook her head. "There was a good chance that I would have done too much damage to everything. So I refused to use it."

"But you could have stopped them from killing you." Lilac Heart protested.

"And make them resent me and escalate the war, Nepgear?" Purple Heart asked with a raised eyebrow. "Besides, that's not my only ability." She pointed at the red core that had cracked. "Is that it?"

Lilac Heart looked at it and suddenly all sound in the area suddenly vanished as she heard a soft, sad voice sobbing.

"Why? Why did they kill her? What did she do to them? Why can't Histoire leave me alone? Why can't I just be alone? Why do I have to be alone? Why? Why? Why are they alive? Why can't I just kill them? Why don't they disappear? Why can't they bring her back?!"

Lilac Heart nodded. "That... That's it. That's the source of my anger, fear and hatred." Part of her was scared, she knew that if she got rid of it that a large part of her would be gone.

Yet as she looked at her sister's kind, loving and supporting eyes, she nodded, knowing what needed to be done. "Sister... Let's end this, together."

Purple Heart gave her a smile. "You know, I can turn more than just myself into something else... Do you trust me?" Lilac Heart nodded and her eyes widened as she felt her body changing and shifting as power flooded her.

"What the goodness?!" Lilac Heart cried out as she transformed into a large gunblade that her sister grabbed.

"Let's call this HDD Nepgear, shall we?" Purple Heart smirked. "In case you were wondering, if I ever made friends with Noire, Vert and Blanc, I was planning on showing them this ability to further our friendship."

"That would either work or make them even angrier at you for doing that." Lilac Heart shot back, finding this to be unusual and weird, but also exhilarating for some reason.

"Let's go!" Purple Heart started to glow with power as she rushed the core. "For your future!"

The two sisters let out a yell as the outer body started to gloop upwards and started to reform. Ignoring that, the two flew at the crystal all the while yelling as they crashed, gunblade tip first, into the core, blasting through the back of the blob of hate with the core at the end.

"Now! Nepgear! Finish it!" Purple Heart yelled as she pulled the trigger on the Gearblade.

"Full Power Beam Launcher!" Lilac Heart called out as the gunblade let loose an extremely powerful blast that engulfed the crystal, which, under the pressure, started to crack and fracture before shattering into pieces, which were rendered into dust.

"BWLAAAAAAH!" The blob of hatred screamed as it thrashed around, losing shape and cohesion as it started to shrink and dissolve.

"Is it over?" Lilac Heart asked as she turned back into her normal HDD form.

Purple Heart shook her head. "For now..." She looked at Lilac Heart and gave her a pensive look. "Nepgear, even if it's gone now, it could come back at any time."

"I could never accept you were gone. I knew you were, but it was so hard..." Lilac Heart said, while looking down. "What should I do now?"

A white portal formed in front of Lilac Heart and she stared at it. "Nepgear, that's the way back." Purple Heart looked at her sister and smiled softly, hovering over to her and kissing her on the forehead. "I love you so much, Nepgear."

"Neptune..." Lilac Heart smiled at her, finding it possible in her inner world compared to the real world. "...Di..Am I doing a good job? As your replacement?"

"Yes." Purple Heart gave her a gentle look and cupped her sister's face, gently running her fingers down Nepgear's cheek and to her jaw. "But you aren't my replacement, you're my sister and my successor." She sighed heavily. "I missed all of your birthdays. I mean, I was there, but the most I could do was try to wipe your tears away. I was always so frustrated when I couldn't do that."

"Neptune..."

Purple Heart smiled at her. "So I've come up with something, from me to you." She touched Nepgear's chest and a glow covered her sister. "This is my gift to you. Use it wisely."

As the glow subsided, Lilac Heart looked at herself in shock. "This is..."

Purple Heart smiled at her. "Go, Nepgear. Save our baby sister and the others." Lilac Heart nodded and flew to the portal before turning to see Purple Heart turning back to Neptune and waving at her.

"I'll see ya around, Nep Jr.! Kick that wrinkly old CPU's butt for me!"

"I will! Thank you!" Lilac Heart said and disappeared through the portal.

(-)

Black Heart let out a cry of pain as the staff in Reizume's hand smacked her away while the sword in her other hand rapidly was used to cut through the large stone spears that Green Heart shot at her.

"PATHETIC!" Both Rei and Uzume's voice bellowed at the same time. "IS THIS REALLY ALL MODERN CPUS CAN DO?!"

Black and Green Heart were both panting softly while Uni tried shooting from a distance, only for the ancient CPU to block with her wings and Jupiter tried rushing in, only to get knocked away by Reizume's staff.

"That sword hasn't touched me yet and I still feel like my skin's being peeled off just by being near it." Green Heart lamented.

The two CPUs and the two CPU Candidates had their back to the city while Reizume floated in front of them, grinning as she saw them and the city in all its splendor. "Well, I think it's time to end thi...Huh?" Her eyes widened as she looked at Lilac Heart, who was no longer glowing black, but rather white, pink and purple. "What the?!"

"Huh?" Jupiter turned and stared at Lilac Heart. "SIS?! What's..?"

The energy around Lilac Heart suddenly exploded around her in a wave that covered all of Planeptune.

"Is this..." Black Heart began.

"Share energy?" Green Heart gasped in shock. "But there's so much..."

"Do you feel that, Uni?" Jupiter asked and looked at Uni, who was looking at her hands in shock. "It feels like we're being recharged."

"Not just recharged..." Black Heart said in awe. "I haven't felt this strong in years!"

"Yes, I almost feel like I'm as strong as I was during the Console Wars." Green Heart commented as her body glowed softly.

Lilac Heart closed her eyes and took a deep breath before letting out a yell as her body was engulfed in light. When the light died down she wasn't in her usual processor.

"Noire, that's..." Green Heart's eyes widened in shock.

"...Purple Heart's outfit." Black Heart whispered softly.

Where Lilac Heart's processor was light pink with purple highlights, it was now black with purple highlights, her stomach was covered by a translucent purple covering. Her wings, which were originally white with a red taint on the edges were now sharper and purple. Her gauntlets were replaced by black and purple gloves with sharp points on the fingers, and her gunblade had taken a black and purple look while the blade itself gained sharp teeth on the edge.

"You were right, Rei..." Lilac Heart said as she opened her eyes and looked at Reizume. "I was nothing more than a cry-baby, wanting my dead sister to return to me." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly as she put her hand over her chest. "But I learned something. I'm not alone. My sister's dead, but Neptune's not gone. She's here on my back, here in my heart, she lives on as part of me, as part of Planeptune, and so long as I don't forget her, she will never truly die."

"So what's this?" Uzume asked in annoyance. "Just more crying? Who are you trying to be? Your sister?"

"No. I'm not my sister. I'm me. I'm Nepgear, CPU Lilac Heart of Planeptune." Her voice was calm, yet more full of energy than anyone had ever heard from her before.

"You know what?! Screw this! Screw you! Screw this last minute heroic bullshit!" Reizume screamed as she held her staff up in the air as it crackled with power and a dark energy hole formed behind her.

All three CPUs and both Candidates eyes widened as a red glow formed in the center of the hole.

"Just so you know, I can only fire this once." Uzume told Rei.

"Can you do ANYTHING more than once?!" Rei growled at her.

"Hey, maybe if I had my real body instead of being fused with you, I might be able to." Uzume didn't sound the least bit sorry. "Anyway, time to fry."

"Agreed!" Rei grinned at the CPUs. "Even if you try to block this, you'll die. So either tank this and die or dodge and watch as the city goes bye bye. Either way..." She let out a nasty chuckle as her grin grew in size and her eyes took on a maniacal look. "I WIN!"

"ZERO dimension cannon..." Uzume began as the glow got brighter and lighting started to crackle around the edges of the portal.

"FIRE!" Rei yelled and lowered her staff.

* * *

Mwahahahahahaha! Beware the horrors of...

The CLIFFHANGER!

DUN DUN DUUUUUN!

*Gasps of horror*

TFW you turn Nepgear into Simon from Gurren Lagann. XD

I admit, I could have gone with Lilac Cool from the OVA that just came out, but I felt it wouldn't have the same emotional impact on the story. Fun fact, less than 20 minutes after writing this chapter, I found an image of Nepgear in Purple Heart's processor with a black gunblade in her hand.

Also, I apologize to any and all women who suddenly screamed in pain as they read what Jupiter did to Reizume.

As an aside, I did beat Super Neptunia RPG. Decently good game, but it has some flaws that could be fixed (namely have names on the map of where to go and how much AP each skill costs). Gameplay wasn't spectacular but I did enjoy the story overall.


	28. Chapter 23

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

This is a VERY long chapter!

Just a word of warning.

* * *

"FIRE!" Rei yelled and lowered her staff. She laughed as the energy bubbled forward and rushed out, screaming a loud, defiant noise, if energy could have that, that could shatter glass in its wake.

"What do we do? What do we do?!" Uni and Jupiter asked at the same time as the energy crashed down upon them.

Green Heart gripped her spear tightly. 'Is this it? Are we all going to die like this?' Not far away, Black Heart grimaced, she didn't know if she could do anything to stop this.

Lilac Heart charged up her gunblade and pointed it at the oncoming beam. "Even if I can't stop it, I can at least try to weaken it. Multiple Beam Launcher..."

"Ice..." A new voice spoke up.

"Crystal..." Another new voice suddenly spoke up.

"Reflection!" The two said at the same time as what looked like a giant crystal bowl formed in front of the beam, causing the laser to suddenly split and fire in all directions, mostly into the air or towards the ocean.

"WHAT?!" Reizume gasped as her attack was thwarted.

"TAAAAAKE THIS!" A gruff, angry voice screamed out as an ax slammed into Reizume from behind, sending her screaming to the ground below where she hit with a loud and painful crash, kicking up a lot of dirt in the process. The dirt cleared to reveal a twitching Reizume on her back, groaning in pain.

"About time you three showed up, Blanc." Black Heart smirked as she saw White Heart and her two sisters. "I was beginning to think you didn't want to join the party."

"...I'm not unhappy about the save, but now that I think about it, how DID you all get into Planeptune?" Lilac Heart asked, more curious than anything else.

"Do we really have time for a flashback?" Green Heart asked as she looked down at the ground where Reizume was. "What if she decides to interfere?"

"No, no! I'm fine with this!" Reizume yelled up at them as she waved her hand. "I'm curious too, so I won't move until the flashback's over."

Everyone sweat-dropped heavily.

"Well, in that case..." White Heart began.

*Flashback*

"BLANC!" Ram yelled as she and Rom ran into their sister's room, worry on their faces.

Blanc looked at the two as she put her coat on. Her face was slightly flushed as B-Sha, who had her pants and a bra on, moved to put her shirt on as she sat next to Blanc. "What is it?"

"Look!" Ram pulled out a tablet and shoved it in Blanc's face.

"What am I..?" Blanc trailed off and her eyes widened as she saw a live feed of Lilac Heart facing off against some woman that she had never seen before, but between the wings and the fact that she was capable of fighting Lilac Heart evenly only meant one thing to Blanc. "Who's that CPU? And how are we getting this feed?"

"I don't know." Rom fidgeted. "We were watching Neptube Kids videos when this popped up and took over the feed."

"Hey, Blanny," C-Sha pointed to the wall as a button was glowing and flashing. "Looks like you have a call."

Blanc got up, walked over and pressed the button, immediately a screen popped up on the far wall, revealing three familiar faces. "Hello, Noire, Uni, Vert, I figured you three would call."

"Do any of you have any idea how we got this video feed?" Vert asked.

"No," Noire shook her head. "And we're not the only ones getting it, Uni was out early this morning when it started popping up on all the televisions, computers, tablets, smart phones and even consoles, both handheld and stationary."

Blanc said nothing as Ram offered her the tablet. She went back to the bed and sat down with C-Sha looking over her shoulder while Rom sat on C-Sha's lap and Ram sat next to her. "What is going on? Who is that?"

"No clue, but it almost sounds like there's two people there." Vert said as they watched the battle unfold.

Eventually Lilac Heart was surrounded by dark energy and went completely still while the other CPU said some things and floated over to her and a chilling and familiar looking sword formed in her hands. "That sword!" Blanc gasped, her eyes wide.

_"DIE!"_ The other CPU screamed and brought the sword down.

There was a clanging sound and the CPUs all gawked in absolute shock as they saw someone blocking the attack.

_"Who the hell are you?"_

_"Get away from my sister **YOU BITCH!**"_ The newcomer screamed and pushed the agressor away.

"Holy! Jupiter!?" Uni gaped, her eyes wide.

"So pretty!" Rom's eyes sparkled.

"So that's what she looks like in HDD, huh?" Noire said as she looked over the CPU Candidate from Planeptune.

"...I can't..." Uni muttered before a flash of light engulfed her, shocking everyone. "I can't sit here and watch as my friend fights all alone!"

"Yeah! I want to help Miss Jupiter too!" Rom said as she transformed.

"You aren't going without me!" Ram protested and transformed as well.

"And just what do you three hope to accomplish?" Vert asked, a stern look on her face. "If you head to Planeptune now, you'll only cause problems for everyone."

Uni snarled at Vert, her HDD form making her look somewhat more intimidating than normal. "I'd rather cause some problems for everyone if it meant that I can save my friend! I get that you, Blanc and my sister are just big cowards, but I'm not abandoning my friend!"

"Uh huh!"

"That's right!"

Vert chuckled and gave the three a smirk as she transformed into Green Heart. "Cowards huh? Well then, let me show you how a coward does things."

A new window popped up on the video as an old woman appeared. "Hello?"

"Major MASA, I hope that I didn't call at a bad time."

"Green Heart?" The old woman raised an eyebrow. "I can't say that you have, what with all the craziness that's happening in the country."

"Indeed, I don't suppose you're watching a live feed right now, are you?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny that." The old woman said before turning her head to the side. "What do you mean all of our equipment just had emergency updates that just HAD to go into effect right now? What do you mean that it will take twenty-five minutes before they're working properly again? Lady Lilac Heart will not be pleased!" She sighed and looked back at the screen. "Well, as you heard, we're basically blind and unable to defend our nation for the next twenty-five minutes, so if there were any enemy CPUs that wish to go and help our CPU out, there's nothing we could do to stop them."

"Of course." Green Heart smiled as the call ended. "Well, I do think I'm going to take a bit of a trip, it's been so long since I was in Planeptune."

"What a coincidence!" Black Heart said as she stood up. "I was thinking of heading that way myself."

"Blanc?" Rom looked at her sister in worry as Blanc had her head down and her face covered in shadow. "Are we..."

"You two better not go without me!" Blanc yelled as she transformed into White Heart. "Because I've got a WHOLE lot of things to do in Planeptune and I don't want to be left out."

"You better hurry then." Black Heart said as the communication ended.

"Blanny." C-Sha spoke up, causing the CPU to look at her. Smiling, she gave Blanc a kiss on the lips. "That's for good luck." She kissed her again. "That's so you come back home alive."

"NOT IN FRONT OF MY SISTERS!" White Heart yelled, her face red, getting a laugh from Rom, Ram and C-Sha. "Come on! We're wasting time!" She took off towards Planeptune.

"Right." The two said and flew out after White Heart.

*End flashback*

"Oh, so that's why you're late." Black Heart gave White Heart an annoyed look.

"Shut up! In case you forgot, my Basilicom's further away from here than yours is!" White Heart shot back, annoyance obvious in her voice. Ignoring Green Heart as the busty CPU giggled at her, she looked at Reizume, who was floating back up to the sky, an annoyed look on her face. "So who's this bitch?"

"Her name's Rei Ryghts." Lilac Heart answered. "At least half of her is, the darker, orange half happens to be named Uzume Tennouboshi. Uzume is a previous Planeptune CPU and Rei claims to be a CPU from the ancient land of Tari."

"Tari, huh?" White Heart looked at Reizume, who smirked at them. "There aren't a lot of records from before the Great Calamity, but what was salvaged was that Tari lasted for thousands of years. But the CPU was lazy, had no quality control over anything and life generally got worse for everyone. Eventually, between horrible games and the CPU's practices, Tari fell to ruin."

"But how is she here then?" Green Heart asked.

"She also claims that she was the original True Goddess and because she was the original True Goddess she's survived without needing shares." Lilac Heart commented.

"That's right, kiddos." Rei smirked. "You fought in Celestia for ages, trying to kill each other to earn the right of what was originally mine ages ago."

"If you're truly the Goddess of Tari, then tell me something," White Heart spoke up, "what happened before the Great Calamity? There's no records of that time."

Rei sighed heavily. "Well, the records before then? I guess I can tell you. See, part way through my reign, I realized that people were losing faith in me and my powers were starting to weaken. Obviously I didn't want my powers to disappear, so while they were still close to their peak, I created a small little blonde fairy." She grinned at Lilac Heart. "You know her as Histoire."

"What?!" The four CPUs and Jupiter all gasped in shock.

"Yes, that's right, kiddos, Histoire was originally my book. Well, more like my instruction manual." She started laughing at what she said. "Anywho! I created Histoire with a good chunk of my power. Why do you think Arfoire coveted her?" She snarled in anger. "That bitch..." Rei seethed in anger before turning her head to the right.

"You know," Uzume spoke up, "I'm confused by something. You're an extremely powerful CPU, but I remember the legend of four heroes that defeated you. What was with that?"

Rei turned her head to the left and sighed. "Four of the strongest warriors in the world took me on to free Gamindustri from my rule, Arfoire from the snowy North crafted four powerful weapons that could be used to strip me of my powers. After realizing that even with my powers stripped away, so long as I was the True Goddess of Gamindustri, I could just use Histoire to change the outcome of the fight. So they got Histoire away from me, put a seal on her before they sealed my powers and memories away."

"Histoire's that powerful?" Lilac Heart asked. "That she can re-write the laws of reality?"

"Only if the One True Goddess of Gamindustri wills it, or in the case of the way things are currently, if all four current CPUs come to an agreement, then Histoire can change the very fabric of this world."

"Then..." Lilac Heart began.

"I didn't give her my power over life and death." Rei smirked at Lilac Heart. "Your dead sister can't be brought back with Histoire." She waggled a finger at the CPUs. "No magical wish granting plot device to bring back the dead for you."

"Time Travel would be possible then." Green Heart commented, causing Reizume to laugh at her. "What?"

"I never had that power, Histoire can't do it. Uzume here, however..."

"It's possible, I suppose for time travel, but as I am right now, I can only modify existing rules of the world, I can't create new ones out of thin air."

"Anyway," Rei continued on. "But undoing recent history? Yeah, that's possible. Anyway, after my memories were sealed, well, Arfoire was the only one who survived our fight and she became known the second True Goddess of Gamindustri, but as she was never a CPU, she had no Divine Protections for the people."

"But how did she survive for so long?" Uni asked, confused.

Rei sighed. "Moron. I already told you, she was known as the second True Goddess, which meant that she could use Histoire's power to some extent, which included giving herself a life span on par with a CPU."

"Then why did she need our powers ten years ago?" Green Heart asked, confused as Rei huffed.

"She wasn't a CPU! She could only use a small fragment of Histoire's powers. But if she had copies of your powers..." Rei trailed off.

"Why would the people try to end you anyway?" Jupiter asked. "Aren't CPUs supposed to serve their people?"

"WRONG!" Rei yelled in anger. "The people are supposed to worship CPUs and just shut up about their problems. Isn't it enough that I'm there? No, they want this, they want that, they want so much. It's so annoying! Then when they start to get all upset at you because you're annoyed with them, they start losing faith and start badmouthing you. Then when you try to crack down on dissent, it only gets worse. Fools! If they can't just put blind faith in me, then I guess I have no choice but to become a tyrant."

"...And why did Uzume join with you?"

"Because the people of Planeptune, those ungrateful bastards, I serve them faithfully for decades, even broker a temporary peace with the other CPUs for a few years, but my powers went out of control just ONE time and the citizens decided I was a witch, not a Goddess, and they wanted me dead. So I sealed myself away and removed their memories of me." Uzume growled in anger.

"I see..." Green Heart sighed softly. "You both were alone, weren't you? Neither of you had anyone you could rely on. How sad."

Rom raised her hand. "Blanc, you said something about a Great Calamity and how it's Miss Rei's fault."

"IT'S NOT MY FAULT!" Rei screamed at her. "But, go ahead, Miss Lowee CPU, tell them about the Great Calamity."

"Records of that time are sparse, but the information available tells us that the world was consumed in darkness and dying for several years." White Heart said softly. "But then, before the world could be completely destroyed, four lights appeared in the darkness, driving it away as four CPUs came into being, as well as their nations. Lowee, ruled by the CPU Red Heart, Planeptune, ruled by the CPU Iris Heart, Eden, ruled by the CPU Yellow Heart and NGO, ruled by the CPU Sapphire Heart."

"I don't know those last two." Lilac Heart said to White Heart.

"Eden was later renamed Leanbox," Green Heart replied, "and I believe that the nation of NGO became Lastation."

Black Heart nodded. "Indeed, my predecessor left detailed notes about the name and identity change behind."

"Are we done talking yet?" Uzume asked, clearly annoyed. "Unless you have some sort of crazy plan?"

Rei turned her head left and opened her mouth to speak, before an idea crossed her mind. A sneer came to her face as she looked at the other CPUs. "GEE HEE HEE HEE! I just got a GREAT idea!"

"It really doesn't matter." Black Heart said to her. "There's eight of us and only one of you."

White Heart, Green Heart and Jupiter all gave her a flat look. "Why did you say that?" They asked at the same time. "Now she's going to get some sort of powerful back up to even the odds out."

Black Heart, for her part, looked a bit sheepish. "Sorry."

Reizume started cackling with laughter as she held up her staff, which crackled with black lightning.

"Multiple Beam Launcher!" Lilac Heart yelled as she fired a blast as Reizume, only to watch as the beam seemingly passed through her body without touching her. "...It was worth a try at least."

"How did she do that?" White Heart asked. "I know I hit her."

"Um..." Rom spoke up as the sky started to get covered by dark clouds and crackle with power. "She's using space/time magic on herself so that attacks just pass through her. But that's a really high level of magic and really hard to control, so it's likely she can't do that against multiple or surprise attacks."

"Smart kid, too bad you're too late!" Reizume laughed as four small black misty swirls, all about the size of a human, formed in front of her. "Think you can do THIS more than once?!"

"Sure, it's just moving an intangible object from one location to another." Uzume smirked as Reizume's body started to glow, pointing Gehaburn in front of her, black energy surrounded the blade before going into each of the mists, which started to glow brightly before they stilled and shrank, hardening and forming into bodies.

"What the?!" Black Heart gasped as she saw what was going on. She couldn't believe it, but the mist was transforming... "Are those... CPUs?!"

The four mists formed and shifted, revealing four females. The first was a woman with brown hair that went to her shoulders, she was wearing a full-body bright red processor with white squares over her modest breasts, crotch, knees and elbows. In her right hand was a red gun, over her back was a bazooka-like cannon, her forehead had some sort of strap across it with a red dot in the center of her forehead and connected to the strap was some sort of clear eye-piece that covered her right eye. Her processor had what looked like a controller where her belt buckle would be if she was wearing a belt, it was square with two red buttons, a D-pad and two smaller buttons in-between the D-Pad and the red buttons, there were eight glowing bars on the top of the controller buckle. The CPU opened her eyes, revealing that they were a dull gray but had a white power symbol in the center of them. Her wings looked like red helicopter blades.

Next to her was a woman with long, dark purple hair, who had a choker around her neck and a very, VERY skimpy black bikini that did nothing to hide her shapely thighs or large breasts and if one looked behind her, they would see that her bikini bottom was a thong, which allowed her to show off her round and jiggly butt-cheeks completely. Her wings were black and red butterfly wings while she had a serrated sword in her right hand. Opening her eyes, they saw that her eyes were bright red with a white power symbol in them as she chuckled while they practically glowed with excitement.

The third woman was in a light blue bikini top and black bike shorts, her feet were covered by tennis shoes, her hair was in a long braided ponytail and was blue in color with bangs that framed her face, in her hands she had bladed tonfas. Opening her eyes, she revealed that she had blue-green eyes with a white power symbol in them.

She was also flatter than White Heart.

The final woman had long blonde hair. She was wearing white boots and leg coverings that went from her ankles to half-way up her thighs. Her body suit covered her waist, abdomen and the bottom half of her breasts while the top half of her breasts and her shoulders were left uncovered. She had four wings on her back that were white with yellow ends and she had heavily armored gauntlets with claws on them over each of her arms. She opened her eyes to reveal they were orange, though the bottom of her eyes lightened up to look yellow with a white power symbol in them.

Her breasts were, for a lack of a better word, huge. So much so that they looked like they were straining her processor to hold them in.

Green Heart twitched as she saw how big those boobs were. "My goodness! Those are gigantic! They're even bigger than mine are!" She actually felt like her breasts had shrunk five sizes due to being intimidated by the size of those boobs.

"Heh!" White Heart smirked at Green Heart. "Looks like you're just a normal girl now, Thunder Tits."

"Nonsense! Just because her boobs are bigger than mine doesn't make mine any less special." Green Heart grabbed her boobs and bounced them up and down for a moment. "...Oh no! I sound like every whiny loser who was upset about my boobs when I teased them!" she whined as she let go of her breasts and put the back of her hand on her forehead, trying to fight off going faint.

"I'd say it's poetic justice, myself." White Heart smirked at Green Heart. "For all those years of you teasing me about my lack of tits. About time someone showed up that can shut you up."

"Well..." The one in red spoke up, her voice was fairly rough. "Iris Heart," she nodded at the one in the dominatrix outfit, "Sapphire Heart," she nodded at the one wielding the tonfas, "Yellow Heart..." she nodded at the one with the giant boobs, "I'm surprised to see you all again."

"YAY! I get to play with you again, Nine!" Yellow Heart cheered as she threw her hands in the air, her breasts jiggling wildly with the motion. She looked around in confusion. "Huh? Pea doesn't remember any of these places!"

"Because we're in the future." Iris Heart said and looked over her shoulder at Reizume. "Or rather, our souls were brought back to life somehow."

"Pea doesn't get it." Yellow Heart had a confused look on her face while Sapphire Heart rolled her eyes.

"You died a long time ago, now you're not dead, okay?"

"Oh!" Yellow Heart smiled brightly. "That's a lot easier to understand! Thanks not bouncy!"

Sapphire Heart twitched. "Excuse me for being flat!"

Yellow Heart laughed childishly and put her hands under her breasts. "WHEE! I get to be all bouncy bouncy again!" She laughed while cupping her breasts and bouncing them up and down. "Bouncy bouncy!"

Everyone watching this sweat-dropped heavily.

"...Am I like that?" Green Heart asked.

"Yes." White Heart, Black Heart and Uni all said at the same time.

"Enough with the boob jokes already!" Reizume yelled in frustration. "If I had known that it would be like this, I would have brought someone else back to life instead."

"And how did you bring them back to life anyway?" Black Heart asked, curiosity in her voice. "You said yourself that you didn't have the ability to do that."

"I said I didn't give Histoire my power over life and death." Rei said as she looked to her left, though her eye somehow turned to look at Black Heart. It was actually a bit unsettling. "But!" She waggled a finger at Black Heart, "all I did was create create fake CPU bodies."

Her head turned to the right and Uzume started to speak. "As for them being alive, I just moved their soul from where it was resting and moved them into their new bodies."

"So you were lying." Black Heart said slowly.

"*I* can't revive the dead!" Rei protested. "At least not when they've been dead for as long as those four have been, but I can create bodies that will do my bidding, sure, but they aren't as strong as the originals, but if the bodies have their original souls in them, then at least they can fight normally, but... Um, how old are their souls again?"

"Iris Heart seemed to rule Planeptune for five hundred years, the other three were much younger than her." Uzume pointed out.

"Thank you, anyway, Uzume can modify the laws of reality that are in place, so all she did was move their souls from one location into an empty shell that I had created."

"So it's reviving people, just in a round-a-bout way." Black Heart scoffed at her.

"Well, that explains why I feel so young." Iris Heart said as she shook her head. "I seem to recall that people moved on from me after awhile and I just faded away after my shares ran out." She shrugged, not really concerned with it. "So why did you wake me up from my nap?" She gave Reizume a glare. "I was enjoying sleeping when all of a sudden I get shaken awake and pulled back to the land of the living."

"But it's fun!" Yellow Heart laughed with her arms in the air, her breasts jiggling and causing more than a few people to twitch at that.

"Says the one who ended my life." Red Heart grumbled in annoyance.

"Aw, I'm sorry, Nine!" Yellow Heart actually pouted, "but you kept getting up and kept trying to fight."

Sapphire Heart rubbed her forehead and looked at the modern CPUs apologetically. "I'm sorry, but as you can see, Yellow Heart is a childish idiot and we have to deal with her."

"No, no, it's fine." Black Heart waved her off. "For some reason I'm very sympathetic." She didn't know why, but Black Heart certainly felt sympathetic to what her ancient predecessor was going through.

"ENOUGH!" Reizume yelled in anger. "I didn't bring you back to talk, I brought you back to fight those blasted CPUs for me while I get my revenge on all of Gamindustri."

Iris Heart sighed and gave her an annoyed look. "Really? You didn't bring me back to have fun? Just fight? That's boring." She crossed her arms under her breasts and let out a huff of annoyance. "Had you said that I could play with them, I'd be more interested."

Suddenly Yellow Heart, Red Heart and Sapphire Heart all flinched and floated away from Iris Heart.

"...Play?" Reizume asked softly. "You want to play games?"

Iris Heart chuckled. "Oh yes, it's so much fun to play with people and watch them cry when you're done. It's so cute." She cooed.

"Pea doesn't like it when she plays." Yellow Heart was blue in the face as she trembled. "Pea played with Ploot once and couldn't sit down for a week after!"

"And you won too." Sapphire Heart muttered, remembering that time. "Then again, Iris Heart was in a very bad mood when she was playing too."

"Stop using euphemisms, that bitch is into all sorts of S&M play." Red Heart yelled in frustration.

"Aww, but Red Heart, don't you remember all those nights you warmed my bed?" Iris Heart pouted. "You sure liked the candle wax."

Red Heart's face was as red as her processor as the modern CPU's stared at her in shock while her eyes were blank and white with black circles surrounding them. "First of all, you captured me and bound me with something that wouldn't let me transform or use my powers! Secondly, I did NOT like the candle wax! And lastly, I NEVER liked warming your bed! You're the one who used me as a body pillow when you slept for two weeks straight!"

"Aww..." Iris Heart gave her a soft, teasing smile. "But you were so comfortable and cuddly."

"I feel like I'm too young to be listening to this conversation." Jupiter muttered, getting a nod from Uni, Rom and Ram.

"...How come we're not fighting?" Lilac Heart asked.

"Because they don't seem to want to fight for one." Green Heart answered her. "For two, this is pretty hilarious and I don't think any of us can get into a mood to fight right now with the comedy routine going on."

"...That's stupid." Still, Lilac Heart really couldn't muster the will to actually try and fight. "...But you seem to be right."

"Will you stop ruining the dramatic tension?!" Reizume yelled at the ancient CPUs.

"I don't see why we should." Sapphire Heart shrugged at her. "I get it, you want us to fight our successors, but that rarely goes well for the older generation. There's a reason they're succeeded by the next generation."

"You know what? Screw this!" Reizume glared as she started to glow. "Either you fight those CPUs with all you have or I'll strip you of your free will and make you watch as I use your bodies!"

"Oh my, how lewd." Iris Heart smirked at Reizume. "You'd be a good domme if you weren't so insufferable." She sighed as Reizume sputtered and looked at the other CPUs. "Since we don't have a choice, I guess we'll fight. Which one of you is Planeptune's CPU?"

"That would be me." Lilac Heart said softly and she tilted her head in confusion. "Why does there feel like a ton of tension in the air?"

"Because you're facing Iris Heart." Both Red and Sapphire Heart said at the same time, shivering.

"Have fun, pretty lady!" Yellow Heart smiled at Lilac Heart as Iris Heart formed a circle under her feet and launched herself at Lilac Heart at high speeds, their swords clashing with a strong shock-wave from the connection.

"My..." Iris Heart grinned as Lilac Heart blocked her attack, she pulled her sword back and swung it in a wide arc, revealing that the sword was a whip blade as it not only knocked Lilac Heart away, but also the other CPUs around her.

After floating out of the danger range, Blanc looked at the other ancient CPUs. "Let's save time here." Blanc said as she gripped her ax and pointed it at Red Heart. "CPU White Heart of Lowee with White Sister Rom and White Sister Ram as my CPU Candidates."

"Well, since you know who I am, there's no point in wasting time." Red Heart pointed her gun at White Heart and blasted a red energy shot at her, which she blocked with her ax before the two flew into the air, followed by the White Sisters, who shot ice magic at Red Heart.

"CPU Black Heart of Lastation, successor of NGO, with Black Sister as my CPU Candidate." Black Heart said as she charged Sapphire Heart, who parried her sword attack with her tonfas.

"I'm hoping for a good fight." Sapphire Heart grinned at Black Heart. "But don't those boobs of yours get in the way with your sword?"

Black Heart suddenly smirked as a nasty idea came to her. "Hey, Uni, you always wondered why you get smaller when you transform, blame Sapphire Heart, she set the trend." Black Heart disengaged her wings and dropped down as many green shots started to bombard the ancient CPU, who twirled her tonfas to block them.

"I am CPU Green Heart of Leanbox, and your successor, Yellow Heart."

"Huh?" Yellow Heart had a confused look on her face as she looked at Green Heart. "What happened to Eden?"

"It got renamed into Leanbox, I'm afraid." Green Heart sighed softly. "Do understand that it was Leanbox when I became a CPU."

"Oh, that's okay then!" Yellow Heart smiled brightly. "Pea just liked to play and color anyway! And wow, your boobies are almost as big as mine! Bouncy is best, isn't it?" She giggled and moved her arms, which caused her large breasts to jiggle, which caused Green Heart to twitch in annoyance.

"...Yes, yes it is." Green Heart nodded and wondered if she should be upset with the fact that those boobs made hers look small and normal or happy with the fact that Leanbox seemingly always had CPUs with large breasts that understood their value.

"Anyway, Pea has to fight you, sorry." Yellow Heart gave her an apologetic look. "Pea always liked playing, but being forced to fight is no fun."

(-)

Lilac Heart grimaced as she blocked another strike from Iris Heart. Even from the first clash, she knew that her predecessor was immensely strong.

"My, my..." Iris Heart practically purred as their blades grinded against each other. "I never thought anyone other than Yellow Heart could stand up to me in raw strength." She chuckled softly. "Oh, honey, what I, GAH!" She yelped as Lilac Heart let out a growl and with a burst of strength sent her tumbling through the air. "Touchy, touchy..." Iris Heart shook her head as she recovered from the sudden burst of strength.

"Don't call me that." Lilac Heart narrowed her eyes at Iris Heart. "There's only one person who gets to call me that and you aren't him."

Iris Heart raised an eyebrow before chuckling. "I see, well, that's fine, really, I figure something else to call you." A lewd grin came to her face, "or make you call me when I have you tied up, naked and letting out sweet moans of pained pleasure."

Seeing Lilac Heart not react, Iris Heart sighed softly. "You know, sweety, you really aren't much fun if you aren't reacting to what I'm saying."

"...What am I supposed to do? Turn into a blushing and stammering school girl because you're engaging in a little dirty talk?" Lilac Heart deadpanned.

"That would be more interesting than your dead fish reaction." Iris Heart sighed heavily. "Unless..." A grin came to her face. "Unless you're an experienced CPU and you've had such a lovely time that my teasing means nothing to you?"

"...What?" Lilac Heart asked, confusion in her voice. "Just where are you going with this? Are we fighting or are you flirting with me?"

"I can do both, sweety." Iris Heart purred. "I had a few people share my bed over the course of my life, they were so cute and cuddly that I never wanted to let them go."

Lilac Heart felt her eye twitching. "You know what? You're a real piece of work, aren't you?"

"Hmm?" Iris Heart grinned at her. "Don't tell me you wish for me to show you a good time. I won't complain if you do and I promise that I'll be gentle enough that you'll be able to walk in the morning."

"No..." Lilac Heart rushed forward, slamming her blade into Iris Heart's blade and blowing her back a few feet and leaving her exposed enough that Lilac Heart pointed her gunblade and shot multiple blasts at the ancient CPU, causing her to grunt in pain as she was blasted away. "I really have no idea what she's talking about." She understood it was a type of flirting, but Lilac Heart really didn't care to try and understand it.

Iris Heart rubbed the back of her hand over her lips and smirked. "You are such a treat! I can't wait to tie you up and take my time to enjoy you thoroughly."

Lilac Heart narrowed her eyes, she knew it wouldn't be easy, after all, this was a CPU that she was facing. Idly, she wondered why the other CPUs came to help her in the first place. 'After all, I've been nothing but a brat to them.'

(-)

Flying over the nearby forests, Sapphire Heart smirked as she turned and used her tonfa to cut through another shot that Uni took at her. "Really? You do realize that I fought against Red Heart for centuries, right? She wasn't exactly a close range expert."

"But I am." Black Heart said as she came diving from above. "Volcano Dive!"

Sapphire Heart grinned and spun her tonfa around so that the bladed end was pointed up. "Not bad! Dragon Ascension!" Sapphire Heart launched herself up, her tonfa connected with Black Heart's blade which knocked Black Heart off balance. Sapphire Heart spun in mid-air and drove a kick into Black Heart's stomach, causing the white-haired CPU to gasp in pain as she was driven back. "Oh come on, I didn't hit you THAT hard." She spun her tonfa and smirked. "I had to hit Iris Heart a lot harder to make her feel any sort of pain back in the day." She tapped her chin and suddenly shuddered in revulsion. "Actually, now that I think about it, she might have been a masochist and got off on taking a beating as much as she does giving one out."

"Too much information." Uni muttered as she zipped through the air, her cannon charging up. "It almost sounds like you were friends."

"Friendly rivals, I guess." Sapphire Heart tapped her chin before she snapped her arm out, a blue barrier forming in front of her as Uni fired a powerful black energy blast. "Sapphire reflection!" The beam hit her barrier and shot off to the sky, much to Uni's surprise. "Red Heart fights like you, Black Sister." Sapphire Heart shook her head and twisted as Black Heart came charging from behind. Grabbing Black Heart's extended arm, Sapphire Heart grinned at Black Heart's shocked expression. "You should know, I'm the reason that Iris Heart took to using a chain sword." She let go of Black Heart and leaned back in the air as a beam of energy passed over where her head had been a moment previous. "Sheesh." Sapphire Heart grumbled in annoyance. "I almost wish I had a CPU Candidate when I was alive."

Black Heart smirked at her ancient predecessor. "Uni might be a little awkward and sometimes has trouble completing her tasks."

"HEY!" Uni pouted, why was Noire saying that stuff now?!

"But it's because of her that I can go all out and not need to worry about you." Black Heart gave a quick glance over her shoulder to see Uni blushing softly, but a big smile was gracing her face.

"...This is your maximum ability?" Sapphire Heart asked, disappointment in her voice. Gripping her tonfas, she let out a scream as her body started to glow with power.

"What's going on?" Black Heart gasped as Sapphire Heart was bathed in light and black markings went across her body. A black circle was on her chest with lines down her abdomen, up her shoulders, down her legs and arms. Her skin turned bright red from the sudden surge of power. Her processor unit changed, becoming stockings that went up to her thighs, a pair of white and blue panty-like bikini bottoms, a strip of cloth with black and blue triangles across the front covered her non-existent breasts, detached sleeves over her arms and her hands became covered by clawed gloves.

Sapphire Heart opened her eyes, which had become yellow with black sclera, though she still had the white power symbol where her pupils were. Turning around in mid-air, both Lastation CPUs saw that her wings had disappeared and were replaced by what looked like an Omega symbol on her back, her hair was now white and sticking out at odd angles. "Unlike most CPUs, I never had an EXE drive." She said as she turned around to face them again. "So I decided that if I couldn't get an EXE drive, I'd unlock a stronger power. Sapphire Omega!" She grinned savagely at them as her body glowed yellow. "And the best part is that," Sapphire Omega smirked, "unlike when I was alive, this isn't chewing through my shares."

"Ah crap!" Both Lastation CPUs said at the same time.

(-)

Red Heart fired several red beams from her gun at White Heart. "Come on, aren't you my successor?" She spun around in multiple and shot several large ice crystals that broke apart into smaller crystals. "It's like I'm in an asteroid field or something!" Shrugging, she holstered her gun and pulled out her bazooka as her eye piece lit up with targets around her and she pulled the trigger to the bazooka. Energy missiles erupted from the end of the tube, blasting all of the ice crystals and turning them into dust in an instant. "Come on, I was, GAH!" Red Heart screamed in shock as White Heart was suddenly near her and slammed her ax into Red Heart's stomach, sending her flying to the ground and crashing into and through several trees.

"That wasn't too hard." White Heart commented and hefted her ax up to put on her shoulder when she noticed something that disturbed her.

Her ax had cracks in the blade.

"You know!" Red Heart yelled as she flew up, glaring at White Heart. "If my processor wasn't made out of Loweenium, I would be dead right now!" She blinked and thought about it for a moment. "Well, dead-er... Hmm... I'm already dead, I'm sure this is a temporary body, so what would it be? Double dead? Deader than dead? I'm confused."

"Wait, that stuff actually existed?!" White Heart had a shocked look on her face. "The formula for Loweenium was lost centuries ago!"

"Blanc?" Rom asked, confusion on her face. "What's Loweenium?"

"A nearly indestructible material." Red Heart answered for White Heart. "It was supposed to be completely indestructible, but Yellow Heart found a way to actually put cracks in it." She shook her head. "Seriously, Yellow Heart is scary strong. She once punched an Ancient Dragon across Gamindustri..."

"That's impressive." White Heart nodded.

Red Heart smirked at her successor. "Yes, but I forgot to mention that she was in human form when she did it and she's smaller than you are when she's in her human form."

White Heart twitched as she suddenly remembered another CPU that was tiny in her human form but became an absolute bombshell in her HDD form.

Red Heart suddenly grabbed her gun and pointed it behind her over her shoulder without looking, firing a red shot behind her and blasting through Ram's attack and blowing a hole into the girl's shoulder.

"RAM!" White Heart's face was covered in shade as her eyes glowed a bright red. "YOU BITCH! YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT!" She rushed forward at top speeds, missing when Red Heard tapped the up button on her controller buckle, sending her rocketing up into the air. "GET BACK HERE!" She yelled and threw her ax at Red Heart and watched in dismay as the ancient CPU was pulled to the right at speeds far greater than she thought possible. 'It's almost like she's Wave Dashing or something.'

Red Heart grimaced as she shot White Heart's ax with a black beam, shattering it into pieces. 'I can't believe I had to use that controller's power twice already.' Two of the eight glowing bars were dark now. 'I don't have a battery pack back-up either. Why did I listen to Keene again?' She mentally whined, remembering that dimensional traveler who was called the Game Master.

'Oh well, it's not like I haven't been in this situation before.' Red Heart thought to herself and looked at the White Sister that she shot and stared in amazement as the other White Sister had healed her damage. 'Reminds me of my little sister.' She sighed heavily, remembering how her sister had just disappeared while on a mission one day and had never been seen again. "That reminds me, I owe Plutia an apology." She had blamed Iris Heart for the disappearance of her sister, thinking that the Planeptune CPU had killed her. It wasn't until she had died and found out that her sister had died because she had an unfortunate run-in with a God of Fire Ancient Dragon and not because of an out-of-control Iris Heart.

Even to this day, Red Heart wasn't sure which was worse.

She was taken out of her musings as a giant ball of energy was launched her way. "YIPE!" She gritted her teeth as it slammed into her and exploded, sending her flying through the air. "Oww!"

Rom and Ram gaped at the result of their combination attack. Despite being one of their stronger moves, the attack hadn't done more than smudge up Red Heart's processor.

Red Heart smirked at their shocked expressions. "I fought against Yellow Heart and that monster Iris Heart for centuries, you think a single magic ball attack is going to stop me when I got Loweenium protecting me?"

'If she considers Iris Heart a monster...' White Heart's thoughts trailed off and turned to look in the general direction of where Lilac Heart was at. "Well, shit." Turning back, she twisted out of the way of a red beam fired by Red Heart.

(-)

Reizume grinned as she saw the fights spreading out across the forests around the city. "Excellent, now there's..." She cried out in pain as a sword sliced through her left arm, causing her to drop Gehaburn into the forest below. Turning, she saw Jupiter behind her. "I forgot about you!"

Jupiter smirked at her. "I know." She had slipped off when Iris Heart had rushed her sister and revealed that her sword was a chain whip. Tugging on the chain connected to her sword, she recalled the blade to her hand.

Reizume sneered at Jupiter. "Shouldn't you be a good little dog and head to your sister's side?"

"Sis will be fine." Jupiter told her and pointed her bloodied sword at Reizume. "However, if I fight with her then who knows what you'll do?"

Reizume growled loudly and called up a communication screen. "HEY! Iris Heart! You forgot the CPU Candidate!"

Iris Heart gave her a bored, almost insulted look. "Forgot? I don't think so. You see, you only told me to fight the CPU, not her sister." She gave Reizume a smirk as she saw the annoyance on Reizume's face increase. "Hey, if you wanted me to fight her sister, you should have said that I need to fight the CPU Candidate too."

"Having trouble controlling your helpers?" Jupiter asked as Reizume canceled the call with an angry scowl on her face.

"Shut up!" Reizume growled at her. "Okay, fine. You want to play, let's play you wannabe Goddess!" Her body started to glow as she held her staff out in front of her while her left arm healed. "Let me show you why Arfoire needed to craft specialty weapons to defeat me."

Jupiter gritted her teeth and rushed forward, her swords glowing brightly. "Try to win without making everything pass right through you then."

"Hmm..." Reizume tapped her chin before smiling in a bright and cheery manner. "Kay!" She glowed with black energy before disappearing.

"Wha..." Jupiter's eyes widened and she looked over her shoulder with dread to see Reizume behind her, smiling.

"Ping!" Reizume said in a cutesy manner as she thrust her staff forward, blasting Jupiter with a powerful force that sent the CPU Candidate tumbling through the air with a cry of pain. "Pong!" She swiped her staff to the right and Jupiter jerked as though she was slammed from the side and sent in the direction Reizume indicated. "Ping!" She swung her arm back in the other direction and watched in amusement as Jupiter suddenly stopped as if she hit something flat before she was sent flying in the opposite direction. "Pong!" She threw her arm up and she giggled as Jupiter was knocked into the air, screaming in pain. "Ping!" She flicked her wrist and grinned savagely as Jupiter's head was jerked violently in one direction while her body continue to move unabated, though now Jupiter was spiraling through the air out of control.

"That looked like it hurt." Uzume pointed out. "I think you nearly took her head off with that."

"I'll try harder to knock her head off next time. ...Which one was I on? Ping or Pong?" Rei asked as she watched Jupiter continue to spin through the air.

"Hmm, I think it was Ping."

Rei's right eye lit up. "Ah! Right! PONG!" She took a big swing of her staff to the left and laughed as Jupiter let out a cry of pain as she was launched at the city at high speeds. "Home run!"

"Yay." Uzume said with zero enthusiasm.

Rei looked to her left with an annoyed glare. "Try to put a little more effort into it."

Turning her head right, Uzume sighed and tried again. "Raw, raw, shish-boom-bah..." Her voice was still flat as a three day open can of cola.

"You know what? Screw you!" Rei yelled as she turned her head to the left.

"If you hadn't destroyed my body," Uzume said as she turned the head to the right, "I might take you up on that offer. I got so bored being alone for all those years."

"...Wait, what?" Rei asked as she turned her head to the left. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

"I have needs too." Uzume said as she turned her head to the right. "Anyway, we got an annoying fly to go swat."

"Point." Rei said as she turned her head to the left and she snapped her fingers, causing Gehaburn to reappear in front of her. Grabbing it with her left hand, she cackled and flew after Jupiter.

(-)

Letting out a cry of pain as her back slammed into the street, Jupiter could do nothing as she hit the pavement hard and fast, sliding across it before hitting a bump that caused her to twist and land on her front before coming to a sliding stop in front of a crowd of people.

"Wait! Is that Lilac Sister?"

"Oh wow! She's bleeding!"

"Mommy? Will she be okay?"

Jupiter tried to ignore the voices of the people as she struggled to push herself to her knees. "Nnngh." Her arms gave out on her a few times, but she eventually pushed herself to her knees while she panted. Turning her head, she saw her reflection in a nearby window and she grimaced. 'Well, I look like I feel at least.'

Her face was... A mess.

There were cuts, bruises and blood everywhere and Jupiter was pretty sure that her left eye was swelling shut at that moment.

"What the? JUPPY! Is that you?!"

"H...Huh?" Jupiter turned her head slowly to see Compa and, of all people, IF, coming towards her, concern on their faces. IF had a cane in her right hand, which she was using as she made her way over to the downed CPU Candidate. "Hey, Compa... IF, I'm glad you got your leg fixed." She was thankful as Compa helped her move so that she could sit down and try to recover from what she just went through.

"Enough about me!" IF couldn't believe what she was seeing. "What about..."

There were several lightning bolts that struck the ground not far away from them, kicking up dust and smoke. The crowd, seeing things were going to get bad, quickly evacuated the area. Jupiter's eyes widened in horror and she forced herself to her feet as the smoke and dust were cleared away to reveal Reizume walking towards her with a nasty smirk on her face. "Well, it looks like I'm going to kill you now, so why don't you just..."

"STOP IT!" Compa got in front of Jupiter, her arms held out wide as she glared at the Ancient CPU. "If you're a CPU, you shouldn't be a big meanie!"

Reizume threw her head back and laughed at Compa. "Oh that's rich! A mere mortal telling ME, the first True Goddess of Gamindustri, the only TRUE CPU," a savage grin came to her face as she raised one eyebrow at Compa, "what to do?! How pathetic! The modern CPUs are really worthless if the people think they can tell them what to do."

"Don't talk about Lady Lilac Heart or her sister like that!" A new voice spoke up and Reizume jerked in surprise as a familiar blonde girl in blue pants and a matching t-shirt marched up to stand beside Compa. "Lei-Lei, what are you doing?"

"B-Sha..." Reizume growled at her. "I am NOT Lei-Lei! My name is Rei Ryghts! Goddess of Tari!"

B-Sha frowned sadly. "But you were such a good worker. You worked hard for Planeptune, why are you acting like this? Why would you betray Lady Lilac Heart?" It didn't make sense to B-Sha, weren't they friends? Didn't they hang out from time to time after work?

Scoffing, Reizume pointed her staff at the group and smirked. "I was never on her side to begin with. Oh well, looks like you all need to die." Her staff started to crackle with power before a powerful lightning bolt slammed down on where B-Sha, Compa, IF and Jupiter were. "DIE!"

* * *

Suffer at the hands of yet another Cliffhanger! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

The next chapter will have several fights happening at the same time. Also, I'm not a big fan of exposition, even if it is needed to set things up.

And Peashy told all of you that she was going to make an appearance into the story in the Nepstation she was in with Anonydeath.

And now, to save time so that I don't get a ton of questions about certain things and so I don't have to answer the same questions over and over via PMs, I'll lay it out here.

Let's start with Iris Heart, easiest one. The whole "she ruled for 500 years" is a reference to how Sega extended the life-span of the Genesis for far longer than it should have with extensions and add-ons. As for the "monster" comments, well, besides Iris Heart being a monster, have you seen a Sega Genesis with all the add-ons and the cartridges you can stack on top of each other?

Yellow Heart represents the TurboGraphx 16, or PC-Engine in Japan, not the computer. However, since the TG16 competed with the SNES and Genesis back in the day, why not have her be a rival to Iris Heart and the others? As for why Eden was succeeded by Leanbox, well, even though Yellow Heart represents the TurboGraphx 16, her human form name is a play on PC, and since Microsoft made computers before making the X-Box, don't you think it fits?

Red Heart represents the Famicom/Super Famicom, pretty simple. On a side note, the zapper-controller set up was basically an homage to Captain N the Game Master, if you remember THAT TV series (shows how old I am). The NES had games coming out until 1994 while the SNES had games come out until 1996-1997. So I just kind of lump them together. And, no, I'm not counting Star Fox 2 (which officially came out in 2017). Loweenium is a play on the mythical Nintendium that Nintendo makes their consoles out of that makes them nigh indestructible (seriously, go see how durable those things are). BTW, her sister dying to a God of Fire is a reference to how a Gameboy got caught up in a fire while a soldier was in Iraq during the first Gulf War and it still worked afterwords.

Sapphire Heart from NGO represents the final console during the 16 bit era that competed with TG16, Sega and Nintendo, the NeoGeo. Funny enough, there *IS* a canonical country called NioGio in the manga. Anyway, SNK, makers of the NeoGeo (really big in Central and South America, BTW), made a LOT of fighting games (King of Fighters, Art of Fighting, Fatal Fury to name a few). And fighting games, along with RPGs were heavily featured on the original Playstation. In fact, SNK ported King of Fighters 95 and 99 to the PS1 while porting most of the rest of their games library, other than Garou, Neowave and King of Fighters 2002 UM, to the PS2, at least in America. As an aside, Sapphire Omega is a play on Omega Rugal from King of Fighters 95.  
Fun fact: The NeoGeo continued to have games made for it until 2006 and each cartridge was over 250 dollars in the US with the system being worth $600+ back in 1990. That's about 1200 dollars in today's money for the system and the games were just shy of 500 dollars in today's money. Suddenly things about Lastation (Land of Black Regality) makes a lot more sense.


	29. Chapter 24

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

This chapter's even longer than the previous one! How the heck did THAT happen?

...

Oh right, a bunch of fights going off at the same time. Silly me!

* * *

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Yellow Heart laughed as her clawed weapons clashed with Green Heart's spear. "This is fun!" The two were zipping across the forest skyline, spinning, twisting and attacking each other. "Let's play some more!"

Twirling her spear in her hand, Green Heart slashed outwards as Yellow Heart rushed her. "There might... Have been a point in my life where I'd agree with you." Internally, she couldn't help but marvel at how strong Yellow Heart was. Even deflecting the attacks was taking a good amount of strength to deal with. 'Still...' Green Heart narrowed her eyes, instincts and reflexes that were honed by countless years of battle screamed at her as she ducked under a stab at her head. 'Got you.' She thought to herself as she knocked Yellow Heart's arm out of the way while wind spun around the tip of her spear. Rapidly stabbing at Yellow Heart, she hit the other CPU over and over in the thighs, stomach, chest and arms before finishing her attack with and over-head smash that sent the ancient CPU to the ground below, kicking up a ton of dirt and debris in the process.

Green Heart smirked as she looked down.

That smirk died a painful death as the dust cleared and she saw Yellow Heart sitting on her butt, laughing happily. "I guess no matter the era, CPUs really are difficult to defeat." She muttered to herself as Yellow Heart floated up in the air to face her again.

Yellow Heart giggled as she floated there, her arms by her side. "It's too bad that Pea died before meeting you! What's your name anyway?"

Green Heart frowned in confusion. "You already know my name."

"No!" Yellow Heart shook her head wildly, which, to Green Heart's frustration, caused her boobs to jiggle even from that. "I don't mean your Goddess name! I mean your human name!"

Green Heart wondered why she was asking before mentally shrugging. "If you must know, my name is Vert."

Yellow Heart blinked in confusion and tilted her head. "Ver... Veru... Velu... BAH! That's too hard! Imma call you Beru Beru!"

"...Beru Beru?" Green Heart wasn't sure what to think of that. On one hand, it was rather cute, on the other hand, she wondered where Yellow Heart came up with that.

"Yep! Beru Beru is Beru Beru! Much easier to say!" Yellow Heart crossed her arms under her boobs and nodded happily. "Yay! Now we can be friends!"

Green Heart stared at Yellow Heart, shocked by her saying that. "I..." An image of another CPU, with long braided hair entered her mind.

_"I would rather be friends than enemies."_

Green Heart twitched, sure, that had been decades ago in Celestia, but at the time Green Heart had thought that Purple Heart was trying to trick her and was planning on taking her nation away from her and had no intention of actually becoming friends.

Yellow Heart tilted her head in confusion. "What's wrong?"

Green Heart relaxed her stance and had a sad smile grace her face. "You aren't the first CPU to ask to be friends with me. I lost my chance once, I guess I wouldn't mind being friends with you."

"YAY!" Yellow Heart threw her hands in the air, causing her breasts to bounce up and down wildly, almost bursting out of her outfit.

"...I'm surprised you aren't spilling out of your processor or slapping yourself in the face." Green Heart commented.

"Pea used to do that a lot, but then the other CPUs got mad and said it was distracting, so they helped Pea get a new processor that stretches and holds my boobies in." Yellow Heart was smiling brightly and giggling. "Pea just thinks they're jealous of the bouncy!" She grabbed at the edges of top of her processor and pulled up, revealing that it did, indeed, have incredible elastic properties as it stretched upwards and when Yellow Heart let it go to slap back down, her large breasts jiggled uncontrollably but the processor did not seem to be bothered by the slightest.

"...You fought like that?" Green Heart raised an eyebrow as Yellow Heart nodded.

"Uh huh! Sometimes it was hard when they bounced so hard they slapped me in the face!" Yellow Heart pouted, remembering that. "So Pea got help so her processor didn't tear off super easy!" Yellow Heart's eyes suddenly started to sparkle. "Pea even has a special swimsuit on in case her processor tears!"

"I... See..." Green Heart sweat-dropped. "I think I owe Blanc an apology then." After being confronted with someone who could make her breasts seem almost normal, Green Heart was really starting to understand Blanc's frustration and anger just a little bit.

Yellow Heart had a sudden nasty grin on her face. "You're strong, so Pea will stop holding back now." Green Heart's eyes widened in shock as Yellow Heart rushed in at speeds far faster than she had used before. "Guard STRIKE!" Letting out a yell, Yellow Heart's punch slammed into Green Heart, sending her flying, uncontrolled, through the air.

Crying out in pain, Green Heart had her eyes screwed shut as she tumbled through the air. Cracking an eye open, she gasped in shock as she saw Yellow Heart above her, with her arm up ready to strike. 'At this range...'

"Bye bye!" Yellow Heart had a nasty grin on her face as she thrust her arm down. The ancient CPU's eyes widened in shock as Green Heart, in an act that seemed out of pure desperation, slid her hands to the top of her spear shaft and used the shortened grip to parry Yellow Heart's attack before letting go of her spear, grabbing Yellow Heart by her arm and using it to slide behind the ancient CPU before driving a knee into the back of Yellow Heart's head, sending her tumbling down into the forest and into and through several trees until she hit a rock formation.

Green Heart panted as she snapped her left hand's fingers, calling her spear to her left hand. "Can't believe that worked." She had only seen it done once before and had dismissed it as something that was beneath the dignity of a Goddess.

She looked at her right hand and realized just why she never did it before, most of her fingers were broken and bent in very painful ways and she was more than certain that the small bones that made up the majority of her hand were also broken, as was her wrist. 'Even though this will heal, this still really hurts.' She'd need to get Rom to heal her or find some sort of healing medicine because with only one hand she really didn't know how much longer she could last in this fight.

"OWW! That hurt, BERU BERU!" Yellow Heart whined as she got up, staggering slightly from side to side.

"That was exactly how I reacted too." Green Heart chuckled softly. "Looks like my predecessor and I have more in common than I thought."

Yellow Heart floated up and gave Green Heart an angry look. "Where did you learn that, Beru Beru?! Pea wants to know!"

"Promise not to attack?" Green Heart asked, getting a rapid nod from Yellow Heart. "Well..."

*Flashback*

"I got you!" Green Heart smirked as she flew above Purple Heart, who was spinning through the air after taking her Spiral Break attack. "It's been fun, but it's over!"

"Too close..." Purple Heart gasped, both of them knew that there was no way that she could move her over-sized katana, which was in her left hand and held to the side, into position to block the attack. "Then..."

Much to Green Heart's shock, Purple Heart flicked her wrist and slid the katana across her body. Green Heart thought she was going to grab it with her right hand and use it that way, but that would still be awkward and hard to block Green Heart's attack. Her shock increased as Purple Heart grabbed her katana by the blade and swung it while twisting her body.

The sudden attack threw Green Heart off balance as Purple Heart grabbed Green Heart's shoulder with her right hand and used it to twist Green Heart enough so that she could deliver a spin-kick into the small of Green Heart's back, sending her speeding down into a small mountain down below. "Had enough, Vert?" Purple Heart asked as she looked at her left hand and grimaced, her fingers were all bloody from where she had gripped the blade to shorten the length and thus the amount of time needed to slash with it. Her fingers weren't just bloody either, she could barely move them. "Must have cut into the nerves or something."

Getting out of the rubble, Green Heart was on her knees, coughing as she had one hand on her spear to hold her up and her other hand on her back. "THAT HURT YOU KNOW!"

"How about we call it a draw?" Purple Heart asked. "If White or Black Heart find us, we'll be easy pickings for them."

Green Heart hated to admit it, but she knew Purple Heart was right. "Fine! Just this once."

Purple Heart nodded at her. "Excellent. Oh, and I'd see a chiropractor if I was you, I know I felt some disks slip when I kicked you."

Seeing Purple Heart fly off, Green Heart groaned in pain from her back. "I'm glad that she didn't try to tease me for being a granny with a bad back."

*End Flashback*

"That's neat." Yellow Heart smiled widely at Green Heart. "Okay, more play time now!"

Green Heart gritted her teeth as she prepared for another attack from Yellow Heart. With her right hand as mangled as it was, there was no way she'd be able to fight. Sure, the bones were healing from her shares, but it would still take time. 'Wait, play... Maybe...' A thought came to her mind and she knew it was a long shot, but she had to give it a go. "You like playing games? Do you know other games?"

Yellow Heart tilted her head and blinked. "Well, Ploot liked to play hide and seek, but whenever she was it she always took hours! Sometimes I gave up and went home."

"I see..." Green Heart nodded, this was perfect. "How about we play a game then?" Yellow Heart's eyes lit up in happiness. "Let's see... How about this? First one to that city?" She pointed at Planeptune's capital. "Then we play tag?"

Yellow Heart's eyes started to sparkle. "OOOOH! Pea likes those games!"

"Ready, set," Green Heart chuckled and bolted towards the city, "Go!"

"HEY! No fair, Beru Beru!" Yellow Heart yelled and rushed after Green Heart. "I'll teach you to cheat!"

Green Heart chuckled as she looked back. 'If she focuses on playing like this, maybe she'll stop trying to fight?' She looked forward as a large blast of lightning crashed into the city out of nowhere. "What was that?" Green Heart asked softly, a cold feeling of dread filling her for some reason.

(-)

Red Heart flew backwards while firing red zapper shots at White Heart and her sisters. She grimaced as White Heart easily avoided the energy blasts. "It's like I'm trying to use those wireless controllers with someone's fat head blocking the signal."

Still, she wasn't aiming at them, but rather keep them busy and off of her while she stalled for time. As durable as she was, Red Heart was next to helpless in close range. That was, of course, completely mitigated by the fact that all she needed was a single shot to take down her opponents. Even Iris Heart, the monster that she was, couldn't ignore gaping holes in her body that needed time to heal after all.

"Still have five uses of this controller..." Red Heart muttered before shooting rapidly at five ice blasts that were heading her way, causing them to explode and cover the sky with snow and mist.

"Blanc! Now!" One of the White Sisters, the one with blue hair, called out and Red Heart gasped as a glowing White Heart came rushing through the mist and snow.

"That was a distraction to cover your real attack?!"

White Heart grinned savagely. "That's RIGHT! DEYAAAAH!" She spun and slammed her glowing ax into Red Heart's stomach, sending her flying away as White Heart spun one more time before slamming her ax down, a wave of snow and ice rushing out before engulfing and consuming Red Heart in a pillar of ice.

"Alright, that worked!" Ram smiled and gave a fist pump.

"Uh huh! Perfect!"

White Heart smirked and put her ax on her shoulders. "When the three of us work together, there's nothing we can't overcome." Her smirk died a painful death as Red Heart popped her head out from behind the ice pillar. "WHAT?!"

"That was close!" Red Heart shuddered, her eyes white and blank. "What kind of crazy attacks do you three have?! I never had anything like that with my sister!" Her left hand was resting on her controller belt buckle. 'Only three uses left, can't believe I had to use both pause and A to get out of that situation.' Even with time stopped for five seconds, the ice had been encroaching around her rather fast and had forced her to use the A button to allow her to lunge into the air quickly to escape.

"Wow," Ram looked on in awe. "Our great-grandma is awesome!"

Red Heart felt her face flushing as she heard that. "Wh-w-wha?! I never had kids!" The thought of having brats when Iris Heart was running around terrified the heck out of her. She honestly had no clue how the citizens of Planeptune put up with their sadistic and crazy Goddess.

Had Red Heart known that Iris Heart adored children and had created several orphanages and practices to take care of children who had no families that continued to the present day, she would have either pissed herself laughing or passed out in shock...

...Or both.

"But you're Lowee's first CPU." Ram protested. "So that makes you our great-grandma!"

White Heart twitched and looked at Ram. "Don't tell me you consider me to be your mother or something." The twins shook their head and White Heart sighed in relief. She didn't know what she would do if that was the dynamic between them. 'C-Sha and Vert would both tease me forever if that was the case.'

"That's Financier!" The White Sisters said at the same time, smiling happily.

"...Wait, do you see her as my mother?" White Heart twitched, she was way older than Financier was, there was no way she could see the maid as anyone other than a maid.

While those three were chatting, Red Heart heard a beep from behind her. "About time this thing recharged." She muttered as she ducked behind the pillar and holstered her zapper before slipping her bazooka off of her shoulder. "Now..." She ran her left hand over her controller belt buckle and pursed her lips. 'If I conserve it, I'll be out of strength when I need it the most.' She didn't know if this would work, but she'd rather lose after going all out than lose by holding back. 'Sorry, kids, but if that freaky CPU can force me back to the land of the living, I don't want to think of what else she can do.' Taking a deep breath, she pressed the B button three times in rapid succession.

Rom was the first to notice something was wrong, her eyes widened as she saw Red Heart slip out from behind the pillar, her bazooka in hand. "Look out!" She cried out as Red Heart started to glow brightly before aiming her bazooka at White Heart and Ram. When a black energy ball came rushing out at high speed, Rom knew she didn't have enough time to cast a spell to stop it. "Then... Forgive me!" She flung herself in front of her sisters, her arms wide just as the blast came barreling down.

"ROM!" Both White Heart and Sister yelled at the same time as they watched in horror as she was consumed in a black energy explosion, the screams she let off were horrifying and heart-rending.

When the explosion died down, Rom was still floating there, her arms extended to the sides, however, her processor was badly torn and tattered, revealing a bunch of burned, bleeding and cracked skin.

Before either of them could react, Rom looked over her shoulder, her face was bloody and burned and one of her eyes was closed. "You're okay... That's... g..o..o..d..." She slurred as she toppled over and fell limply to the ground below, parts of her processor falling off and floating away in the breeze.

"ROM!" Ram yelled, flying after her sister. "NO!"

Eyes wide and her body trembling, the only thing that could come out of her mouth was a soft, "Rom..." White Heart's face was pale as she looked at her falling sister. "Rom?" She repeated, her voice soft and trembling.

_"I could have killed your sisters when they trespassed in my country. But I didn't. Because unlike you three I know the pain of losing someone important to me."_

Something snapped in White Heart at that moment. "You..." Her eyes glowed a bright red as she glared at Red Heart while her body started to glow brightly. "YOU'RE DEAD! I WON'T LET YOU GET UP EVER AGAIN!" Letting out a scream of pure rage, she rushed Red Heart, who had pulled her zapper out and shot at White Heart again.

Red Heart's eyes widened in shock as White Heart took the blast through her left arm and ignored it while she screamed and slammed her ax into Red Heart's stomach, shattering the ax from the sheer force and sending the ancient CPU flying. "GET BACK HERE!" White Heart screamed and rushed after Red Heart.

Coughing up some blood, Red Heart looked down in horror as her processor had more than a dozen visible cracks in it. Her face paled as parts started to fall off, revealing bloody and bruised skin underneath. "You gotta be kidding me! Even Yellow Heart couldn't do this much..." She trailed off as White Heart, her eyes still glowing red, was on top of her, much to Red Heart's horror.

"I DON'T CARE HOW TOUGH YOUR BODY IS! I'LL STILL KILL YOU!" White Heart screamed while tears fell out of her eyes and she punched Red Heart with her left hand in the chest so hard that the bones in her arm snapped as they couldn't break the ancient CPU's processor.

Grimacing, Red Heart shot at White Heart again, this time she aimed at White Heart's chest, only to have White Heart grab her zapper with her right hand and push it down, causing the shot to tear through White Heart's right leg instead. "What are you?"

"YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED DEAD!" White Heart screamed as she let go of the zapper and punched Red Heart in the face with her right hand as they crashed into the ground below. Panting as she mounted Red Heart, White Heart screamed while tears fell from her eyes. "YOU'LL PAY, YOU BITCH!" She screamed and punched Red Heart in the face over and over again. "HOW DARE YOU DO THAT TO MY SISTER?! SHE DIDN'T DESERVE THAT!"

Red Heart cried out in pain as she felt the bones in her head starting to crack from the blows she was receiving from White Heart. '...Dammit...' She thought to herself as the back of her head bounced off the ground from each hit. 'Only one...' When White Hear pulled her arm back again to punch her, Red Heart, who had never let go of her zapper, pulled it up quickly and fired a shot that went through White Heart's right shoulder, causing White Heart's arm to fall and hang loosely to her side.

"GRAAAAAH!" White Heart screamed and slammed her head down so hard that she split both of their skulls open. "JUST DIE! DIE! DIE!" She screamed and slowly pulled herself back up and slammed her head back down again, and again, and again, but White Heart quickly found after that last one that she didn't have the strength to lift her head again.

Grimacing at the pain she felt, Red Heart grabbed White Heart by her sides and pushed her off to the side and tried to crawl away. "H...oooly...Fu...ck..." Her head felt like that time Iris Heart had been going through PMS and nearly killed her with a baseball bat to the head.

"Get..." White Heart growled and Red Heart looked at her in horror as she used her good arm and leg, though which one was good was a matter of interpretation, to push herself after Red Heart. "Back here and just DIE!" The blood running down White Heart's face, combined with the glowing red eyes, only made the scene more terrifying to the ancient CPU.

(-)

"Rom! ROM!" Ram grabbed Rom before she hit the ground. "ROM!"

"R...am..?" Rom's voice was soft as she trembled. "I'm cold... I can't see you."

"Shh!" Ram landed on the ground and gently put Rom down. "It's okay, I'm here, I won't leave you."

"Where's Blanc? Is she here?"

Ram sniffled and nodded. "Y-yeah, she's here, she's here with us." She grabbed Rom's hand and gave it a squeeze. "See? She's right here!"

"That's good... Ram..." Rom's breathing was shallow. "I'm scared..."

"D...Don't be a dummy! You'll be fine! Just relax and let your shares heal you, okay?" Ram's eyes were watering up. 'Why can't I do anything? Why don't I know any healing spells?!'

"I...I can't feel them, R..a...m..." Rom let out a sigh. "It's... s...o... c..o..l...d..."

"Think, Ram, think... What... What to do, what to do, what to..." Ram started to hyperventilate. "Rom! Don't you dare! Don't you dare die on me! Don't leave me and Blanc alone!" She screamed, tears falling out of her eyes as she tried to keep her sister from leaving her forever.

"Hey, what's... OH MY GOODNESS!" A new voice suddenly yelled and Ram looked up, her eyes full of tears as a redheaded woman in a skirt and blue vest ran up to the two of them. "Holy shit! Hang on!" She reached into her pocket and dug around before pulling out a small purple bottle. "Are you still alive?!" She asked and looked at Rom.

"ROM!" Ram yelled, shaking her sister. "Come on! Are you still here?!"

Rom suddenly gasped, her lips trembling. "I... I don't... I don't have..." Suddenly a purple bottle was shoved into her mouth while the woman grabbed Rom's throat and started massaging it, forcing Rom to drink it.

"What are you..." Ram trailed off, her eyes widening as she saw the wounds on Rom's body slowly fix themselves. "What the...?" The worst of the burns and cuts were lessened and Rom's breathing became easier.

Suddenly Rom started to cough and she opened her eyes. "R...Ram? What..?"

"ROM!" Ram cried and hugged her twin sister. "You're alive!"

"Uh huh." Rom nodded, though she felt so weak and tired and looked at the redhead who was smiling at them. "Who are you?"

"I'm Falcom, I'm an adventurer who was just preparing to leave Planeptune today." She smiled at the twins. "Guess it's a good thing I decided to take my time getting back, huh?"

"What did..?" Rom coughed, grimacing as she tasted what was shoved down her throat.

"Ah! That was a Nep Bull, it's one of Planeptune's specialties, nasty flavor, but it fixes what's wrong with you." Falcom answered before giving them a serious look. "What's going on?"

"Well..." Ram explained to Falcom as she helped Rom sit up.

Falcom's eyes widened. "Seriously?! Ancient CPUs are attacking? Oh man! I wish I had known, I would have gotten back sooner!"

"We need to help Blanc..." Rom suddenly found herself reverting to her human form. "Dang it."

"You just get better, I'll go help Blanc." Ram stood up and looked at Falcom. "Can you watch her?"

"Not a problem." Falcom smiled. "In fact, I was heading to the city, so I'll take her there, trust me, there's no place safer in all of Gamindustri right now." She reached into her pocket and pulled out another bottle. "Take this Nep Bull, it'll come in handy."

Ram nodded, took it and flew off.

"Um..." Rom looked at Falcom. "I'm Rom, CPU Candidate of Lowee, thank you for saving me."

Falcom just smiled. "Hey, it's okay. Come on." She walked over and knelt down next to Rom. "I'll carry you to the city, we're not far from it."

Rom nodded and climbed onto Falcom's back as the taller woman stood up and started making her way to the city. Looking in the direction Ram took off, she trembled. "Good luck, Ram, Blanc, stay safe."

(-)

Red Heart panted heavily as she dragged her body away from White Heart as fast as she could. Which was about as fast as a fat plumber trying to run underwater.

"I'll kill you..." White Heart growled as she got closer to Red Heart. "You killed Rom, you're dead, then I'm going to crawl on that bitch who summoned you and gnaw her legs off of her and beat her to death with them."

"I... I'm sorry, but..."

"SHUT UP!" White Heart screamed at Red Heart. "She was my sister! I loved her! You took her from me!" Tears of rage and pain fell from her eyes. "Rom did nothing wrong! She didn't deserve to die!"

"BLANC!" Ram yelled as she spotted her sister and Red Heart both trying to crawl across the ground. "Hold on!" Ram landed next to White Heart and popped the top on the Nep Bull. "Drink this, it'll heal you."

"Ram..." White Heart looked at her. "What about Rom?" She was surprised as Ram started to smile.

"She's fine! A nice woman named Falcom had one of these on her and made Rom drink it, she's alive and with Falcom right now."

Suddenly White Heart felt all the strength in her body leave her as she flopped down, shuddering while tears fell out of her eyes. "Thank goodness." She was still crying softly as Ram helped her onto her back and helped her sit up before drinking the Nep Bull that was offered her. Grimacing at the taste, White Heart's eyes suddenly widened as she felt the wounds on her body start to heal and fix themselves. "I... What is this stuff?"

"It's called a Nep Bull." Ram told her as White Heart got to her feet.

"That's good to know." White Heart shuddered in disgust. "That flavor is horrible. Next time we have an emergency, I'm bringing healing drinks or some of my Blanc Manjuus."

Ram giggled and the two looked at the downed form of Red Heart, who had stopped trying to crawl away.

"I... I can't move, can you just come her and flip me over? I want to talk." Red Heart groaned in pain as she laid there. A few moments later she groaned in pain as her shoulder was grabbed and she was flipped onto her back. Before she even hit the ground, she found her zapper was forcibly ripped from her hand by White Heart. "Heh, it's okay, that had maybe one shot left in it." Red Heart chuckled softly, which died at the angry looks from the two CPUs. "I was forced..."

"Don't give me that horseshit." White Heart growled at her. "You enjoyed what you did to my sister. You delighted in what you planned on doing, didn't you?"

Red Heart chuckled softly, her eyes slowly closing. "Maybe... I don't know. I was scared, I guess. I was just trying to take you out, didn't care if I killed your sisters or not."

White Heart snarled at her. "You know, you really are a piece of shit!"

"You know, Sapphire Heart said the same thing to me once." Red Heart said softly. "I was pretty brutal with regulations back in the day, and I did sabotage some of the things that went on in NGO and Eden." She sighed softly. "It was a different time, really."

"Shut up! You're just trying to score pity points now." White Heart snarled at her. "I'm starting to think that all Lowee CPUs are nothing but pieces of garbage." Ram gasped in dismay. "Not you, you and Rom are probably the only two good Lowee CPUs." White Heart corrected and hugged Ram. "Sorry, didn't mean to say it like that."

Red Heart cracked an eye open. "Are you talking about me? Or perhaps you're talking about something else?"

White Heart was about to say something when an image of a sad and angry Nepgear holding a purple sword and glaring at her popped into her mind. "...I..." Her pupils shrank as an image of Lilac Heart working with her to stop Delphinus popped into her head next. "That is..." The memory of the peace treaty conference came to her mind next. White Heart closed her eyes and took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "You know what?" She said as she opened her eyes to look at her predecessor. "I have to thank you."

"...Huh?" Red Heart and Ram were both confused.

"Because of you nearly killing Rom... You made me realize exactly what I put Nepgear through for these past ten years." White Heart glared at Red Heart. "I still hate you though."

Red Heart chuckled and closed her eyes again. "That's fine... Sorry to say, but I won't be around to see how this turns out. The past should stay in the past, you know? But at least I know Lowee's in good hands with you and your sisters."

"You said that Yellow Heart killed you." White Heart suddenly spoke up as she let Ram go from her hug. "What was with that?"

Red Heart smirked. "I was at the end of my life, I had lost the faith of my followers and a new CPU was to be born soon. I didn't want to see my replacement, so before that happened, I challenged Yellow Heart to a fight to the death. She didn't want to fight that far, but I wouldn't stop fighting." Red Heart sighed and smiled softly. "Peashy, I never apologized to her for making her kill me."

"...What's your human name?" Ram asked suddenly.

"Heh... Novenary." Red Heart chuckled before letting out one more sigh as her body suddenly turned into dark mist and dissipated into nothingness.

"Blanc?" Ram looked at her sister. White Heart looked at her. "Are you okay?"

White Heart sighed softly. "...I haven't been okay in many years." Her eyes widened as Ram hugged her. Smiling softly, she returned the hug. "Come on, there's still that crazy lady who summoned Red Heart."

"Right." Ram nodded and the two took off into the air.

(-)

Sapphire Omega took a deep breath as she grinned at the two CPUs. "It's been so long since I was able to do this." Her detached sleeves fluttered in the wind as she moved her arms around.

"Careful, Uni." Black Heart held her sword in front of her defensively.

Sapphire Omega leaned forward as a circle formed under her feet before she launched herself at Black Heart. Swinging her tonfas forward, she was pleasantly surprised as Black Heart twisted out of the way of one and used her sword to block the other one. "Not bad."

"You're not the first person I fought that can dual wield." Black Heart smirked at her as she pushed her predecessor off of her. Letting out a yell, she swung her sword down, only to have it parried to the side. Gritting her teeth as she was kicked away, Black Heart spun around and rushed in. "Lacy Dance!"

Sapphire Omega crossed her arms in front of her as she took two strong kicks to the stomach. As Black Heart spun around to connect with her sword, Sapphire Omega grinned. "You're wide open!" She did a back-flip in mid-air and her feet drove into Black Heart's chin, sending the CPU flying back and away.

"So are you!" Uni cried out as she fired multiple green energy blasts at Sapphire Omega, who merely chuckled as they hit her aura and exploded harmlessly, kicking up smoke in the process.

"Is that all?"

Uni snarled. "Ex-Multi BLASTER!" She yelled, firing a black beam of energy at Sapphire Omega.

"Oooh! This might hurt... Too bad it won't hit." Sapphire Omega chuckled and held up her hand as a green barrier formed in front of it. "Dark Reflection." The blast hit her barrier hard, driving her back as it was deflected back and into the sky, splitting a cloud. After the attack ended, Sapphire Omega chuckled at Uni's look of frustration. "Not bad, I'll give you that, even Yellow Heart couldn't push me back like you did when she slammed into my barriers." Sapphire Omega was actually impressed that a mere candidate could do something like that. "Too bad for you..." She took a three-point stance in the air and rushed in. "I have enough experience against ranged fighters!"

Uni's eyes widened in horror as Sapphire Omega got in too close for her to use her gun so fast that the most she could do was try to use her gun as a shield...

...Which didn't work as Sapphire Omega flipped over her, Uni turned and she let out a grunt of pain as Sapphire Omega grabbed her by her head and drove her knees into Uni's face, multiple times before letting go and kicking Uni to the ground below.

"NGH!" Uni cried out as she landed with a painful crash. She grabbed her face with her right hand and mentally sighed as she didn't feel any thing broken at least. 'Oh DAMN! That really hurt!'

Grinning and chuckling, Sapphire Omega rushed at Uni, only to look to the side as Black Heart came rushing in, her sword glowing multiple colors. She attempted to block the attack, only for Black Heart to slash multiple times at her before kicking her away.

Black Heart smirked and snapped her fingers as her Tornado Chain's delayed cutting effect destroyed Sapphire Omega's tonfas completely.

Grunting from the attack, Sapphire Omega smirked at Black Heart. "Not bad!" She seemed to disappear for a moment before reappearing right next to Black Heart, her hand grabbing the other CPU's face before she turned and rushed to the ground. "Deadly STORM!" Her hand started to glow brightly as she slammed Black Heart, head first, into some hard rocks as a circle surrounded them before an explosion of violent energy erupted out from where Black Heart's head had connected with the ground.

"NOIRE!" Uni yelled as she got up, her eyes wide and her face pale.

When the attack ended, Sapphire Omega was standing there holding Black Heart by her throat as the CPU hung there limply. Her processor was badly torn, only strips of cloth covering her breasts, stomach, butt and crotch. Smirking, Sapphire Omega kicked Black Heart's sword out of her hand before lifting her up and then throwing her through several trees.

"NOIRE!" Uni screamed before firing a black beam at Sapphire Omega, who seemed to disappear before reappearing behind her.

"You're completely helpless." Sapphire Omega said as she knocked Uni's gun out of her hand. "And pathetic," she did a jumping ax-kick that hit Uni in the chin, knocking her up before Sapphire Omega drove her foot into Uni's stomach, forcing her eyes to bug out before she coughed up some blood as she cried out in pain while her body was driven into a shallow crater from the force. "And most of all... You're useless." Sapphire Omega smirked as she looked at Uni's twitching form. Holding her right hand above her head, it started to crackle with all the power of a localized, out-of-control storm.

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" Black Heart, her body bruised, cut and bloodied in some spots, screamed as she dived in from above, driving her foot into Sapphire Omega's chest and forcing her back and onto her knees. "Uni!"

Uni coughed as she got to her knees. "I'm fine!" She was lying, she felt like her organs had been brutalized by that last attack.

Sapphire Omega stood up and smirked at Black Heart. "Look at you, your outfit's barely holding together and I just kicked your bubble butt all over the place." She shrugged at the anger she was feeling. "So what's your plan now? Strip and seduce me? I should let you know that I'm not into girls. If you're disappointed, blame Iris Heart."

Black Heart panted softly. "I wouldn't have survived the Console Wars if I could be defeated so easily. Now let me show you the true power of Lastation's CPU."

Chuckling, Sapphire Omega, her right hand still glowing with power. "In that case... TAKE THIS! STORM KNUCKLE!" She rushed forward at speeds so fast that she seemingly disappeared. Letting loose a yell, she drove her fist into Black Heart's face...

...Only her hand wasn't connecting as Black Heart moved to the side at the last moment as she redirected Sapphire Omega's attack so she went past her. "WHAT?!" She felt a grab on her leg and Black Heart was grinning at Sapphire Omega's shocked look.

"You..." Black Heart swung Sapphire Omega over her head and slammed her on the ground, the energy in Sapphire Omega's right hand evaporating as the back of her head hit the ground. "Can't..." She turned to the side and flipped Sapphire Omega up, over and onto her face, causing the ancient CPU to cry out in pain. "Beat me like that!" She tossed Sapphire Omega into the air before a sword of pure energy formed in her outstretched hand and she jumped up after her predecessor, slashing downwards to the ground and causing Sapphire Omega to cry out in pain as she bounced off the ground.

"Not bad." Sapphire Omega chuckled as she got to her feet. "I'm surprised you can fight unarmed."

Black Heart snorted. "I fought against a CPU that could master any weapon in her hand with ease for years, and she was no slouch in unarmed combat, you think she didn't disarm me on more than one occasion?" Black Heart looked at her hands in disappointment. 'I'm pretty out of practice, I'll need to look up some specialists to help whip me back into shape.' That is, if she survived the current crisis.

Sapphire Omega got to her feet and laughed. "Interesting, you would have been great to have around back in the day. I didn't have any good sparring partners." Her aura suddenly surrounded her body as her eyes glowed brightly while she held her arms to the side. "Allow me to thank you for this fight and show you the attack I developed that forced Red Heart to develop Loweenium!"

Black Heart smirked at her. "You know, for someone who never had an EXE attack, this certainly has the feel of one. Still, there's one thing you're over-looking."

"And what's that?" Sapphire Omega asked as her hands started to glow and crackle with power.

"I'm not alone." Black Heart grinned and Sapphire Omega quickly past Black Heart to see Uni's gun had changed forms, the barrel increasing in length as energy crackled along the barrel. "Uni! DO IT!"

"Let's see you stop this one!" Uni snarled as she had a circle behind her to help her brace herself, the end of her gun opening up as power built up and the energy turned from green to pink to red to blue and finally white. "Full Power! Ex-Multi Blaster Mode EXCEED!" Pulling the trigger, Uni let out a cry as white energy blasted from the end of the barrel.

"Fine! TAKE THIS! OMEGA WAVE!" Snapping her arms forward, the energy that she had built up came rushing out as a large ball of energy, slamming into the beam of energy. The energy ball was huge, easily as big as Sapphire Omega was.

The only problem?

The energy wave that Uni was firing at her was even bigger than the ball of energy.

Sapphire Omega gritted her teeth while groaning as she tried to hold back the wave of energy. "Not... Bad..." She managed to get out slowly as she felt the energy ball being slowly pushed back.

As she watched the clash of powers, Black Heart slowly grinned. "When I said I could go all out because of Uni, it's not because she's a great support fighter or because we're in perfect sync." She chuckled as she could almost feel the confusion from both Uni and Sapphire Omega as she spoke. "It's because Uni gives her all in everything she does and I know that I can go all out because I don't need to worry if I mess up. Because my little sister will be there supporting me. And finally, it's because I know that even if something would happen to me, I know that Lastation would be in good hands with my sister in charge."

"Noire..." Uni whispered softly. "If that's the case, I'll meet your expectations! YAAAAAH!"

Suddenly a surge of energy erupted from the barrel of the cannon and blasted through the energy ball that Sapphire Omega had fired. The ancient CPU could only stare as the energy wave came barreling down upon her before she chuckled softly. "Well done, my successors." Sapphire Omega whispered as she was consumed by the energy wave.

As the energy subsided and her gun returned to its normal, albeit still over-sized cannon self. Uni sighed as she saw Sapphire Omega against a large rock. 'No, wait, she's back to Sapphire Heart.' The CPU's hair had turned back to blue, her skin had gone back to being its normal color, and her outfit had returned to the bike shorts and a blue bikini top.

Chuckling, Sapphire Heart looked up from where she was embedded in the rock and smiled. "Good job. Looks like I was right, again. Successors always surpass their predecessors"

"Had I fought alone, I would have lost." Black Heart admitted. "Even with help, I could barely do anything against you." There was a tearing sound and Black Heart's face went red as her processor gave up and fell apart, leaving her naked. "HEY! NOOOOO!" She screeched, covered her breasts and crouched down.

Sapphire Heart chuckled softly. "If you're wondering, I never really wanted to fight you." She sighed and closed her eyes as she felt herself dissolving. "Take care of our people for me. So long as you can do that, I can rest easy."

Black Heart looked up and nodded. "Of course. I do all I can for the citizens of Lastation."

"I'm glad." Sapphire Heart whispered as her body turned to black mist and dissolved into nothingness.

"Um, Noire..." Uni tried not to look at her big sister as she crouched there, naked, and scratched her cheek. "...Did you mean what you said to her?"

Black Heart focused for a moment and her processor reformed and she stood up, her face still lightly red. "About what? That I can go all out because you're here?"

"That and..." Uni's face turned red as she thought about what Black Heart had said. "Did you mean it when you said that about me being capable enough..?"

Black Heart walked over to her sister and put her hand on Uni's shoulder. When Uni looked at her, she smiled. "Of course. If I'm still around when you decide you want to take over, I know that Lastation will be fine."

"Noire..." Uni's eyes sparkled lightly.

"I just don't want to pressure you into becoming the CPU, so take your time and enjoy yourself for now, okay?" Black Heart ruffled Uni's hair as her sister blushed and nodded. "I want you to live your life before you take over if you can, okay?"

Uni nodded. "Right."

The two were distracted by the sound of a large and powerful lightning blast crashing down in the city.

"We better go check on that." Black Heart said as she and her sister took off into the air to find out what happened.

"Stay safe, Jupiter." Uni whispered, hoping her friend was okay.

(-)

Lilac Heart growled as she traded blows with Iris Heart, the ancient CPU had an amused smirk on her face as they clashed. "My, you are such a treat." Iris Heart purred as their blades clashed again while they grinded the edges against each other. "You're so pretty that I would love to just..." Her eyes suddenly glowed in delight as a surge of strength filled her. "Mess your face up forever!"

Lilac Heart grunted as she was pushed away. Quickly aiming her gunblade at Iris Heart, she fired a pink beam that Iris Heart deflected when she swung her sword and it detached into a chain whip.

"Aww..." Iris Heart cooed, "was that not too your liking? Maybe I should tie you to the ceiling and see just how long it takes me to break you, hmm?"

Lilac Heart huffed in annoyance. "Your flirting's getting annoying for one and for two, you can't break what's already broken."

Iris Heart's eyes suddenly lit up in delight. "Oh my! Here I thought you were just a pure and innocent CPU who had no idea what I was talking about."

Lilac Heart gave her an annoyed look. "Me? Pure and innocent? I lost that a long time ago." She huffed as she thought back to how she had killed Arfoire out of revenge shortly after Neptune's death. Letting out a yell, she rushed Iris Heart and the two traded blows again.

Iris Heart grunted as she was forced to actually use both hands on her sword to keep Lilac Heart from cutting her apart. "I must say, I'm impressed. It's not often that someone can leave me flummoxed when I tease them."

"I don't do teasing." Lilac Heart muttered as she suddenly kicked up, knocking Iris Heart's sword out of her hand and followed it up by spinning around and slashing upwards, knocking Iris Heart up. "Eat my Panzer Blade!" Lilac Heart called out as she struck Iris Heart four more times before finishing it off with a downwards spike that sent the ancient CPU crashing to the ground below. "...For some reason that felt REALLY cathartic, like my soul was screaming at me to hurt you for something you did to me." Which was odd, since she had never met Iris Heart until today.

Iris Heart sat up and shook her head to clear it from that blow. "Interesting." She narrowed her eyes. "I usually don't mind those who have strong will power, in fact, I love breaking them, but you seem to be..." She trailed off as a thought came to her. Smirking, she flew into the air and hovered near where Lilac Heart was as she pulled out a new sword from her inventory. "By the way, don't you have a younger sister?"

"Yes, why?" Lilac Heart asked as Iris Heart's smirk turned into a savage grin.

"I would love to play with her, maybe I could do to, URGH!" Iris Heart didn't even get to finish that statement as Lilac Heart was upon her, striking and slashing her with abandon. The thing that unnerved Iris Heart was that Lilac Heart's face wasn't betraying her emotions, though her eyes were full of red-hot anger. "Touchy..."

"Let me make one thing clear to you, if you try to hurt my sister, you won't get to see the sunset."

Iris Heart suddenly smirked at her. "Oh really? Then you're okay with your sister fighting the crazy bitch that revived us?"

"She's fine, I know she's..." Lilac Heart heard a boom and turned her head to stare in horror as she watched her little sister being knocked around like a ping pong ball before being launched into the city. "SHIT!" Turning, she bolted to go after Jupiter, but was stopped as something wrapped around her ankle.

"Don't you have any faith in your sister? Hmm?" Iris Heart smiled at her as she held onto her chain-sword, which was wrapped around Lilac Heart's leg. "Let's have some more fun." She purred while smiling.

Lilac Heart's eyes shrank in anger as her body started to glow with power. "GET OUT OF MY WAY!" She screamed and, in a fit of strength that would have impressed even Yellow Heart, kicked her leg up and pulled Iris Heart close to her. "I don't care who you are or if you scare the other CPUs, you're in my way, so just DIE!"

Iris Heart's eyes widened as Lilac Heart's gunblade suddenly started to glow before it was swung at Iris Heart and she was blasted away, surrounded by energy and forcibly slammed into the ground, where she exploded.

"...Bitch." Lilac Heart muttered and kicked away Iris Heart's sword off of her leg before turning and flying off to the city as fast as she could.

On the ground, Iris Heart sat up and shook her head. "...I am *SO* turned on right now."

(-)

Lilac Heart was pushing herself as fast as she could go as she saw several lightning bolts crash into the ground near each other. "No!" Panic started to fill her mind as she thought about her sister being caught in any of those. She got over the skyline of the buildings and let out a sigh of relief as she saw her sister standing up, though she was pretty beaten up and looked like she was in a lot of pain.

"DIE!" Reizume yelled and Lilac Heart watched, her eyes wide and full of horror as a powerful lightning bolt crashed down on where Jupiter, B-Sha and two girls that she didn't immediately recognize.

"n...No..." Lilac Heart muttered softly as she saw the smoke and dust kicked up from that attack. "NOOOO!" Lilac Heart screamed and rushed at Reizume, who merely turned to look at her. Reizume raised her staff and tendrils erupted from the buildings and wrapped around Lilac Heart's body, holding her in mid air as she struggled to get free. "You... What did you do!?"

Reizume's shoulders shook as she threw her head back and started to laugh like a maniac. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" She had a crazed, happy look on her face. "Too bad for you! You have to live with the fact that not only did you lose your big sister, but now you just got to see your little sister killed in front of your eyes. How does it feel? To be an only child once again?"

The look of sheer rage on Lilac Heart's face would have made even Iris Heart pause with worry. "YOU'LL PAY! I WILL MAKE YOU PAY!" She screamed while struggling even harder against the binds holding her.

Reizume chuckled softly as she pointed Gehaburn at Lilac Heart. "If you had just joined us, she wouldn't be dead right now. But that's fine, I'll let you meet her when I kill you with this sword."

Lilac Heart had tears in her eyes as she watched Reizume float over to her and point Gehaburn at her. "I swear, I'll find some way to make you pay."

"Unlikely." Reizume chuckled at her. "But do keep thinking that, if it helps you when you pass on to the next world, then fine."

"Now, now, now..." A new voice spoke up and Reizume and Lilac Heart's eyes both widened in shock as several long blaster bits came out of nowhere and blasted the tendrils holding Lilac Heart up apart and allowing the CPU to slash at Reizume and force her back. "When Honey says that you'll pay, she means it." The cloud of dust and dirt finally dissipated revealing a tall pink robot person surrounded by a green bubble with Jupiter, Compa, IF and B-Sha all on the ground around him.

"A...Anonydeath?!" Lilac Heart's eyes widened in shock. "What are you doing here?"

"Yoo Hoo! Honey!" Anonydeath waved and started gushing. "Gosh, just being here and being in the right place at the right time is so exciting! See, I was trying to call you since sunrise this morning, but all the communication equipment was down and I thought I'd come and see you personally. And what do you know? I saw your cutie-pie of a little sister in trouble, so I thought I'd save her."

Reizume snorted. "So what are you? Her boyfriend?"

"Ooooh!" Anonydeath started squirming back and forth. "How I would just LOVE it if Honey chose to be my girlfriend, or even better, my wife!"

Lilac Heart felt her cheeks turning red as everyone looked at her and it was taking all her self-control to not face-palm or devolve into a stuttering mess. And considering the cameras that were around, she just knew that people who weren't near the combat zone were able to see what was going on live.

Anonydeath chuckled softly as he looked up and saw that Green Heart, Yellow Heart, Iris Heart and White Heart and one of the White Sisters, though Anonydeath wondered what happened to the other one, appeared in the air. 'It's time.' He suddenly cleared his throat. "While I would just LOVE to gush over how cute and adorable Honey is and how much I would love it if she wanted to be my wife..."

"Please... Stop..." Lilac Heart groaned, her face completely red at this point. It was one thing when he was doing this in private, but there were people around! She really didn't know if she could handle his flirting right now.

Besides, it might give people ideas and then they'd start posting new lewd artwork online and she really didn't need her followers deciding to lewd her with Anonydeath. It was bad enough that she had seen so much fan art of her and Noire!

Lilac Heart wouldn't be surprised if people were already whispering about this, talking about her having a secret lover or drawing lewd artwork about this right now.

"Anyway, as I was saying," Anonydeath's voice became a lot more serious, shocking everyone but Lilac Heart, who was used to his wild mood swings. "Turns out that the Anti-CPU faction isn't as harmless as people originally thought."

"What do you mean?" White Heart asked. "Sure, they do some crappy things, but other than a couple of incidents they're just disgruntled citizens."

"Ah, you'd be right about that, Lady White Heart." Anonydeath nodded at her. "At least, that's how it was until a few years ago." He waved at Black Heart as she and Uni flew next to White Heart and her sister. "Anyway, hasn't it been a little weird that there was such an uptick in piracy and terrorism in the past few years? It turns out that the Anti-CPU faction isn't just made up of disgruntled citizens, but also criminals, like a hidden Order in Lastation that was using high school children as CPU assassins."

Black Heart gasped, remembering the information that had come in not too long ago that allowed her to bust up a criminal organization and free several teenagers that had been raised as assassins. "What are you saying?" She asked Anonydeath, though she made a mental note to go check on those teenagers that had been rescued and make sure that they were adjusting to life as regular people properly.

"Well, turns out that the Order, and all the Anti-CPU faction was run by a "Miss R" from behind the scenes."

Lilac Heart narrowed her eyes and looked at Reizume. "That was you, wasn't it?"

"Bing Bong!" Reizume laughed. "I do admit, I have to give Arfoire credit, her whole "Overlord Momus" plan wasn't bad, but drawing upon people's fears doesn't work in the long run." Holding a finger, she smiled sweetly. "But her idea was pretty good regardless. All I did was convince people who were already part of the Anti-CPU faction, or were sympathetic to it to stop putting their faith in you CPUs while arranging monster horde attacks or other things that made the CPUs in those nations look weak."

"So it's your fault that my amusement parks were attacked?!" White Heart growled in anger.

"And our vacation lodges?" Uni couldn't believe someone would do that, why would she do that?

"And I bet the reason that there were monsters in my city was because of you." Green Heart narrowed her eyes.

"Indeed!" Reizume laughed. "It's too bad that none of you found any of those Monster Containment Disks that I remade and had dropped off in your nations. If you had, you would have thought that Lilac Heart was trying to start the war up again." Laughing at their anger, she smirked. "The best part of all of this? They all thought they were bringing in a new world, one that didn't need CPUs to help them, they were putting their faith in "Miss R" and since that's me, well..."

"You were able to get the faith of people that way." Black Heart realized in horror. "So that's how..."

"Bing Bong!" Reizume laughed. "I can't believe it worked so well! So long as I have enough shares to transform, I can keep fighting!" She sighed in delight. "Well, it's time for you all to..."

"GUARD STRIKE!" Yellow Heart screamed as she rushed Reizume from behind, smashing the Ancient CPU into a building down the block. "You're a big meanie!"

Reizume shook her head as she pulled herself from the building. "What the...?" Her eyes widened as Iris Heart hovered in front of her. "You..?"

"I don't mind fighting or playing," Iris Heart narrowed her eyes at Reizume as she tapped her sword on her open palm, "but I so detest people like you, who are so weak that all you can do is manipulate others into doing your bidding."

Reizume smirked at her as Yellow Heart rushed up behind Iris Heart. "You fool! I gave you life, I can take it away just as easily." She snapped her fingers and both Yellow and Iris Heart suddenly jerked and twitched as though they were in pain. "Go back to sleep forever!" Swinging her staff down, both Iris Heart and Yellow Heart were slammed onto the street below.

"That didn't last long." White Heart muttered, before noticing something usual. "What the?"

The dirt that was kicked up by them crashing into the ground disappeared, revealing two small girls, one with messy purple hair and wearing pastel pajamas with pink slippers on her feet while holding a rabbit. The other girl was a little girl with yellow hair in a yellow outfit with a bee pattern on it.

"Awww..." The purple haired girl pouted. "I ran out of time."

"Boo! Pea wanted to beat up that big meanie!"

"Goodness!" Green Heart gasped in shock. "Yellow Heart is just a child?"

"Hi, Beru! My name's Peashy! You can call me Pea!" Peashy smiled at her before frowning as she started to turn black. "Pea's outta time, huh?"

"Don't worry." The other girl smiled softly and hugged Peashy. "Just rest, you can sleep with me." She looked up at Lilac Heart and waved. "Beat her up for me, okay? Oh!" Her eyes widened. "I forgot! I'm Plutia! Bye bye!"

The modern CPUs watched as they turned black before fading away like dust on the wind.

"Tch..." White Heart grumbled, for some reason she actually felt a bit sad to see them go out like that.

Reizume growled in anger. "Pathetic, and here I waste all that power to bring them back to life and they turn on me?"

Unseen to the others, a little girl with short brown hair ran up to Jupiter, IF, Compa, B-Sha and Anonydeath. "Miss Jupiter!"

"Huh?" Jupiter, who was still in HDD, looked at Rom. "Rom? What?"

"Shh!" Rom put her hands on Jupiter. "Heal." Jupiter sighed softly as she felt the damage on her face and body slowly undo itself.

"Are you going to fight the meanie CPU, mister robot?" Compa asked.

"Ahhh, no. While I have some weapons and defensive capacity, my ability to actually fight is very limited." Anonydeath shook his head. "I'd be more of a hinderance to Honey and the others than a help. The best thing we can do is stay out of their way."

Compa nodded, though she didn't like it.

In the air Lilac Heart narrowed her eyes at Reizume. "I do hope that you know you won't be leaving here in one piece, right? You have admitted to crimes against all of the nations, attempted murder on my CPU Candidate, brought the dead back to life, attempted murder on myself and openly admit that you wish to kill everyone in Gamindustri."

Reizume chuckled. "And what will you do? In case you forgot, I'm a very powerful CPU who can survive anything you throw at me." She sneered at Lilac Heart. "And since I worked for you for so many years, I can tell you that I know about your Anti-CPU programs and systems."

"Anti-CPU programs and systems?" Black Heart asked, looking at Lilac Heart as she, White Heart, Uni and Ram floated closer to them.

Lilac Heart took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "I was extremely terrified of you three and developed paranoia as a result. Developing anti-CPU weapons and systems gave me peace of mind and let me sleep at night."

On the ground, Rom had finished healing Jupiter, who stood up fully and smiled at her. "Thanks. Are you..?"

Rom was engulfed in light and smiled at Jupiter as she transformed. "I was just recovering, miss Falcom gave me another Nepbull, so I'm okay now. I'll do the healing, okay?"

Jupiter nodded and looked at Anonydeath. "Thanks for helping us, Anny. Now get out of here, I don't want sis's boyfriend to get hurt."

"OOOOH!" Anonydeath swooned as Jupiter and Rom took off into the air. "That feels so nice to hear!"

"Come on!" IF grumbled. "I'd rather not get in the way of a big CPU battle."

"I hate to inform you," Anonydeath said softly, "if they really cut loose in the city, there's nowhere for us to hide that will be safe." He sighed dramatically. "Just listen."

"Sis!" Both Rom and Jupiter yelled at the same time as they flew up to join them.

"You're okay!" White Heart hugged Rom tightly. "I thought you died."

"I'm okay." Rom said as White Heart let go of the hug.

Lilac Heart didn't look at her sister as she was still focused on Reizume. "How are you feeling, Jupiter?"

"Better now that Rom healed me." Jupiter answered.

"Good." Lilac Heart nodded. "Now then... I think it's..."

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Reizume suddenly started laughing. "I should have told you! I disabled all your communication systems this morning!" She smirked at Lilac Heart's surprised look. "On top of that, I snuck in late last night and disabled ALL of your Anti-CPU weapons, programs and self-defense systems!"

"...All of them?" Lilac Heart asked, a pondering look on her face. "Even one that only Anonydeath and I knew about? Project METEOR?"

"...Project Meteor?" Reizume asked, confusion and dread filling her voice.

"...Black Heart, White Heart, Green Heart..." Lilac Heart suddenly said. "Can you three and your sisters hold her off for five, no, three minutes?"

"Asking a lot, aren't ya?" White Heart grumbled, but smirked. "Sure, why not? I've wanted to beat her ass in since she brought back Red Heart and nearly killed my sisters because of it!"

"I'd be all for it." Green Heart grimaced. "But I don't know how useful I'll be with one hand."

Lilac Heart sighed and held one hand out, pointing at Green Heart. "You really should learn skills other than stabbing things and making your breasts smother younger sisters. Hyper Heal."

"You know healing?" Green Heart asked Lilac Heart, shocked as she watched her hand start to repair itself.

"Of course I do." Lilac Heart said as the healing spell finished. "I was alone for so many years, I wanted to make sure that I didn't need to rely on anyone else." She turned and flew off to the Basilicom.

"Well..." Green Heart flexed her newly fixed hand and grinned. "I think I wouldn't mind fighting now."

"Great, let's kick her ass." Black Heart answered while Reizume floated there, grinning and glowing black.

"This could be bad, we shouldn't let her go." Uzume muttered.

"What are you talking about?" Rei smirked. "Let her get whatever thing she has, we'll take it on and then show her how pathetic she is."

Uzume was silent at that. She still thought it was stupid, but it wasn't like she was in charge of this body.

On the ground Anonydeath smiled behind his mask. "Well then," looking at Compa, IF and B-Sha, he motioned towards the direction that Lilac Heart had flown off to. "You three, get going that way."

IF nodded and looked at B-Sha, who had a stunned look on her face. "Hey, come on..." She shook B-Sha's shoulder and sighed when she didn't respond. "Shock, huh? Hey, Compa, help me get her out of here."

"Right, Iffy!" Compa nodded and ran over to B-Sha, the two put one of B-Sha's arms over their shoulders as they dragged B-Sha away from the fighting.

(-)

"Histoire!" Lilac Heart yelled as she flew into the Basilicom. When she saw the tome, she grabbed it and flew through the hallways, ignoring the questions of the staff. "I need you to answer me something. Does the name Rei Ryghts mean anything to you?"

Histoire sighed softly. "Barely. The name is familiar, but I barely knew her, but I saw her mention that she was my creator. Nepgear, I..."

"Shove it, I need your help." Lilac Heart said as she blasted the elevator door open and then flew down below. "Make sure to get that repaired." Histoire nodded as they flew into a sub-lab.

"What are we..." Histoire trailed off as the lights in the lab lit up and she saw it. "What is... Is that..."

"Project METEOR." Lilac Heart nodded and let go of Histoire. "I need to set it up, you need to open the front doors."

"Front..." Histoire trailed off as Lilac Heart pointed at what looked like a garage door on the far wall. "Very well."

As the two worked quickly to get the system set up fully, Histoire looked at Lilac Heart, who was strapping herself into the system before reverting to Nepgear. "Why did you..?"

"Because for this to work I need to be in human form." Nepgear answered her and she sighed. "This is going to suck either way."

"...Nepgear," Histoire spoke up as she finished the preparations on her end. "When this is over, I want to tell you something important."

Nepgear looked at her before nodding. "Very well." The system roared to life and Nepgear took a deep breath as she felt the METEOR system making her fly. "Feels weird to not fly under my own power. Anyway, this is Nepgear, CPU of Planeptune, LAUNCHING!"

Histoire hit the button and the doors opened fully before Nepgear flew back off to the battlefield. "Good luck, Nepgear."

* * *

Yes, that's a Gundam reference at the end. That should tell you what Project METEOR actually is.

I wonder how many of you will figure out why this is Nepgear's trump card.

Getting close to the end, everyone. It's been one HELL of a ride!


	30. Chapter 25

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

So who wants to see Jupiter's EXE attack?

* * *

"This way! This way!" Falcom urged people to get away from the combat zone. Thankfully no one was sticking around to watch the fight and were moving at a fairly quick pace. Those who were too young to move fast or were too old to move quickly were helped by others who could move faster.

The adventurer looked back at the battlefield and hoped that things calmed down soon. "Never thought I'd see the day that all the CPUs in the world would team up together."

She hoped it was a sign of good things to come and not a harbinger of doom.

(-)

"Rainy Ratnapura!" Green Heart cried out as she rushed in and rapidly stabbed at Reizume. She grimaced at her spear attack was blocked by the ancient CPU's wings, as they seemed to absorb the kinetic energy by her attacks. "Then... In-between spear!"

"Is that all you've got?" Reizume smirked at her as her wings blocked all the spears that were launched at her.

"Not quite." Green Heart smirked as she let herself fall while Black Heart came rushing in, her sword glowing multiple colors.

"Tornado Sword!" Black Heart smirked as her sword shattered Reizume's wings. "If it's solid, there's nothing that I cannot cut."

Reizume snarled at her while she fell before reforming her wings and stopping her descent as she held her staff up as several stereotypical alien craft formed around her. "Let me guess, you're going to say something like 'real CPUs ride each other' next, huh?"

"Well, if one of them could turn into a horse, sure." Black Heart commented, wondering why the ancient CPU was bringing it up.

"Feh!" Reizume lowered her staff and the alien craft rushed forward, all glowing. "Go! Invader explosions!"

Black Heart didn't even bother sticking around as she flew backwards as fast as she could. "Blanc! Uni! Rom! Ram! Do it!"

"Gefahrlichtern!" White Heart yelled as she smashed several balls of energy in front of her into the invaders, while Rom, Ram and Uni fired short, but fast, bursts of magic at the invaders, causing them to explode violently, kicking up dust and smoke in the air.

Reizume growled as she couldn't see anything through the smoke, which only lasted for all of three seconds as Jupiter rushed through at incredible speeds, her swords glowing. "What?!" Reizume growled and pointed her staff at the incoming CPU Candidate, only to find that she had to create a barrier above her to stop ice and energy blasts from pelting her from above.

"RAGE OF THE GODS!" Jupiter screamed as she slashed Reizume in an "X" shape, stunning the ancient CPU and forcing her arms apart while she was knocked backwards. Crouching, she lunged upwards, driving her left sword into Reizume's right breast and getting a scream of pain from Reizume.

"YOU BITCH! WHY ARE YOU STABBING MY BREASTS SO MUCH?!" Reizume noted, with some horror, that the handle of the sword was connected to a chain as Jupiter floated over and behind her. "GAHUH!" Reizume gasped as she felt Jupiter stab her from behind, the tip of her sword sticking out of Reizume's left breast.

"Not done yet!" Jupiter yelled as she fell to the street, the chain extending with her. As she landed, she turned and pulled HARD, causing Reizume to crash to the ground, screaming in pain as her body was pulled down from both the front and the back at the same time. Jupiter watched in satisfaction as Reizume crashed into the ground and exploded in a violent eruption of energy.

"Um... Jupiter..." Green Heart spoke up as she watched Jupiter recall her blades to her hands via her chains. "Are you trying to tell me something?"

Jupiter gave her a blank look. "...I was not traumatized by you smothering me with your boobs." She then looked back at the smoking pit where Reizume had disappeared into. "But she hurt me, she tried to kill sis, she doesn't deserve kindness."

The other CPUs sweat-dropped heavily.

"YAAAAAH!" Reizume screamed as wind was kicked up around her and lightning crashed all around her, blood was running down her stomach from the stabs in her breasts. "YOU LITTLE BITCH! I'M GUNNA RIP YOUR HEART OUT AND FEED YOU WITH IT!" She then sneered at Jupiter. "NO! I'll tie you to a post butt naked and let cowboys have their way with you first!"

"I actually sympathize with you on this one." Green Heart said as she had her left arm under her breasts while her right hand was on her cheek and a distressed look was on her face. "My breasts are cringing in despair from seeing the brutality that was demonstrated on you."

Uzume grumbled softly. "I might have had decent sized breasts in my real body and had to tape them down because they got in the way sometimes, but, sheesh, that REALLY FUCKING HURTS!" She twitched in anger. "I almost wish I had changed the world so that everyone was flat chested while I was still in charge."

"YOU HORRIBLE MONSTER!" Green Heart screamed in horror. "Why would you do something so..."

"CAN IT, THUNDER TITS!" White Heart screamed at her and then glared at Uzume. "And I usually don't agree with her on this, but I really want to hurt you for suggesting that!" Her face turned red as Green Heart gave her an amused look. "Just so you know, I hate your large sacks of fat that you call boobs and the bag of blubber you call your ass, okay?!"

"Blanc, are you talking about C-Sha?" Rom asked, causing White Heart's face to turn bright red at that.

"Well, she uses C-Sha's big boobies as a pillow every time C-Sha spends the night." Ram pointed out helpfully, much to Green Heart's amusement.

"Really, Blanc?" Green Heart raised an eyebrow at the flat-chested CPU. "If I had known you were attracted to large breasts, I might have held back on teasing you for all those years."

White Heart growled at her. "I wouldn't like your boobs even if you were the only woman with big breasts in all of Gamindustri! They're too big and you'd smother me by accident if I slept on them."

"Oh ho?" Green Heart had a wide grin on her face. "So you've thought about it then?" Seeing White Heart's face turn even redder, Green Heart chuckled. "If the situation was different, Blanc, I would gladly let you use my breasts as pillows." She laughed as steam started to come out of White Heart's ears.

"CAN WE FOCUS?!" Black Heart yelled at the two of them in annoyance. "We can tease Blanc over her hypocritical love of big breasts later."

"Too late!" Reizume laughed as she floated into the air above them. "You three are too easily distracted." Her staff crackled with power. "I think I'll start with..." She growled as several missiles suddenly rained down on her and she needed to create a barrier to stop them. "What NOW?!"

"Sorry about the wait." Nepgear said as she flew into the battle. "It took some time to get this booted up fully."

Everyone looked up as they saw Nepgear wearing what looked like some sort of power armor that had a large backpack attached to it and two long arms that looked like giant cannons.

Uni's eyes widened in shock. "That... I recognize that!" She nearly squealed in delight, unable to believe that one of her favorite mecha anime had been seemingly brought to life right in front of her eyes.

"Tch!" Rei sneered at her. "Is this supposed to scare me?"

"You know, there's something about it that's bothering me." Uzume muttered before sighing as Rei turned her head and told her to shut up.

"Tell you what..." Rei grinned at Nepgear and held her hands to the side loosely. "Why don't you hit me with everything you've got?" Nepgear blinked in surprise and Rei chuckled at her. "I'll show you how utterly powerless you truly are." She smirked at Nepgear. "What? Were you expecting me to do a climatic showdown with you? I think it's better to show you just where you belong."

Nepgear narrowed her eyes at Rei. "I won't complain, but are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm completely sure! Just do it before I decide that you don't deserve my kindness." Rei growled at her. "And after I finish you off, I'll take your little sister and tear her to pieces."

Nepgear felt her blood chill at that moment. "I see..." She took a deep breath and turned on the speakers of the METEOR backpack. "Jupiter, will you and the rest of the CPUs get to the ground and transform back into your human forms? Because this will hurt you otherwise." She was understating it, but she didn't need to tell them that.

"Sis?" Jupiter asked, confused.

"Yoo hoo, cutie-pie!" Anonydeath waved at Jupiter from a nearby alley. "You should do what your sister says! Trust me when I say that I helped her make this specifically to deal with CPUs."

Jupiter gulped and flew down, transforming back as she got close to the ground. "WHAT ARE YOU ALL DOING! GET DOWN HERE!"

"What's going on?" Black Heart asked as she and Uni landed, both of them transforming back to their human forms, she saw that the other CPUs had done the same.

"Let's just say..." Anonydeath said, his voice full of amusement. "That weapon was something that none of you would have been able to beat if you fought against Honey." Everyone looked at him in confusion and he chuckled. "Just watch."

Up in the sky, Reizume smirked at Nepgear. "Well? I'm waiting!"

"...Alright, don't complain now." Nepgear looked on as several targeting points lit up on a screen that formed in front of her and all of them pointed at Reizume at various points. "METEOR... CHARGE!"

As power began to build up in the METEOR backpack, Reizume chuckled as she saw the tell-tale signs of energy being sucked into the cannons in the front and several gun ports opening up on the top and sides of the thing. "This will..." Suddenly her eyes widened as she felt a painful throb rock her body. "W...What?"

Nepgear was starting to sweat as power continued to build up in the engine. "Thirty percent... Thirty-five percent..."

Rei growled as the power continued to build up. "You..." She couldn't believe this, what was this?

"I told you that it gave me a bad feeling." Uzume said, her voice seemingly unaffected by what was going on.

"Do you know what's going on?!" Rei asked in anger.

"I have an idea, yeah." Uzume chuckled.

On the ground, Noire was starting to sweat as she felt her knees starting to get weak. "Wh...What is this? What's going on?" She noticed that the Candidates were already on their knees while Blanc and Vert were starting to sway.

"You see, Honey discovered a VERY interesting red rock that interfered with Shares." Anonydeath commented as he looked up at the battle.

"An Anti-Crystal?!" Blanc hissed. "What the hell?! There was one more?!"

"Of course there had to be one more." Noire grumbled. "None of us ever came to Planeptune to look for one."

"Right, well, Honey had me develop a weapon that could use it." Anonydeath continued to speak. "She wanted it to create a field that cut off CPUs from shares and weakening them while they were in HDD, but only bothering them a bit in their human forms while it charged up in comparison. Sadly, we never could get that last part right."

"Why would she..?" Blanc asked, panting.

"Well, Honey wanted a weapon that, if it fell into your hands, couldn't be used against her easily." Anonydeath answered while he looked up at Nepgear. "...I really hope she fires soon, it's not good for her to be in that thing while it's charging up."

"No kidding." Noire muttered, wondering how Nepgear was doing. Even at this distance it was hurting them. "She's right on top of that thing, she can't..."

In the air, Nepgear was having a hard time seeing straight. "Seventy-five... Eighty..." She groaned in severe discomfort. 'I should have destroyed this years ago, stupid paranoia.' If she didn't know any better, she would swear that she was staring at six targeting screens at the same time.

"STOP IT!" Rei screamed as she swung her staff outward, sending lightning at Nepgear, which crashed onto her METEOR pack.

Nepgear cried out in pain, both from the lightning and the anti-share field. "This... Ninty...nine... NOW!" Pulling the trigger, she let out a scream as all the gun ports on the top and sides fired thin lasers out at Reizume while her cannon arms fired large streams of energy that came barreling down on the ancient CPU.

Uzume chuckled softly. "This is where we part, Rei. It was fun."

"What are you..?" Rei gasped as she felt Uzume disappear and her left half of her body returned to normal. "GAAAAAAH!" She screamed as she was bombarded with lasers before the large stream blasted her so hard that she lost control of her weapons as she was blasted into the ground with everything that Nepgear fired at her.

After the attack ended, Nepgear was slumped over, panting heavily. "Nnngh..." Sweat was pouring down her face, her hair was matted to her head and if one were to remove her from her power armor that was connected to the backpack, they would see that her outfit was drenched in sweat and partially see-through.

"HONEY!"

She slowly lifted her head and looked to the side and saw Anonydeath grabbing her and helping her out of the power armor and METEOR backpack. "Why didn't we listen to me when I said we should destroy that thing?" She asked as he held her bridal style and turned the armor off, causing it to fall to the ground with a loud crash.

"Because I made the stupid mistake of mentioning I could make a powerful weapon that could make use of it." Anonydeath answered as he carried her to the ground, where he put her down gently.

Nepgear panted and staggered for a moment as she tried to regain her sense of everything. "I should have ignored you then." She said while hanging onto his body so she wouldn't fall onto her ass.

"You got excited at the thought of a weapon that could hurt the other CPUs." Anonydeath answered as he watched her recover.

"I was stupid." Nepgear replied and nodded to Anonydeath. "Thank you. Are the others..?"

"Sis!" Jupiter glared at Nepgear as she staggered over to her sister. "WHAT THE HECK?! YOU NEARLY KILLED US BY ACCIDENT!"

Nepgear winced at the anger Jupiter had. "...I... I was stupid, paranoid and desperate." Seeing that her sister was still angry, Nepgear sighed. "I don't plan on keeping that thing after today. In fact..." She looked at Anonydeath. "Could you take it and blow it up later?"

"That won't be needed." A familiar voice spoke up and Nepgear's eyes widened as she looked up in the air to see a new person hovering in the air. She had dark orange hair, dark colored eyes, she had a white outfit on, a shield on her left hand, a megaphone in her right hand and a cruel smirk on her face.

What terrified Nepgear, Jupiter and Anonydeath were the wings on her back and the fact that they could see a power symbol in her eyes. "...Who?"

The CPU chuckled softly. "I'm Uzume Tennouboshi, but in this form? I'm Orange Heart." She turned and flew over to where Rei was on the ground groaning in her human form. "Well, looks like you ran out of power."

"...How?" Rei asked, a shocked and dismayed look on her face.

Orange Heart sneered at Rei. "I was lying to you the whole time." Her sneer increased as Rei looked at her in shock and horror. "It's true that my powers were limited because I didn't have my body, but you remember how you created those false bodies for Iris Heart and the others? When you were doing that, I was siphoning off some of your power and waited for the right moment. When it came I simply used your power to create a fake of my body. I just needed to wait for you to be defeated, then I moved my soul into my new body." She sighed and looked at herself. "I'd rather not be in HDD, but it's not a strain on me right now, so I won't complain."

"What the hell is going on?!" Blanc yelled in confusion.

"Oh yes, my juniors..." Orange Heart muttered before she snapped her left hand and smirked at Rei. "Just so you know, this *IS* pretty much my real body, even if it's fake, so..."

Rei started to scream in sheer pain as her body glowed black. "But... I'm Immortal!"

"Correction..." Orange Heart sneered as the black aura dissipated from Rei completely. "You WERE Immortal." Rei's eyes widened in shock and horror as she looked at her hand as it started to rapidly age. "You forget? I'm in my body, and I have all my power, plus a good chunk of yours." Orange Heart chuckled as Rei gasped while she rapidly aged. "You're a few thousand years old... Now you're human, no longer Immortal and it's all catching up to you at once."

Orange Heart turned and floated away as Rei let out a pained scream as her body turned into a living corpse before falling apart. "Quite a painful way to die, really, having all your years catch up on you at once."

Nepgear narrowed her eyes at Orange Heart. "So, what are you..."

"I told you." Orange Heart smirked as she pointed her finger at Nepgear's METEOR pack. "I'm going to take my revenge on Planeptune and Gamindustri for rejecting me."

"I won't let, ARRRRGH!" Nepgear cried out in pain, as did Jupiter and the other CPUs as the sky itself turned red. "What did..?"

Orange Heart chuckled as she held the anti-Crystal, a red, plus-shaped gem, in her left hand. "I just changed the properties of this crystal so that it affects all CPUs but me." She then took a deep breath and pointed her megaphone at Nepgear, Jupiter and Anonydeath. "BLOW AWAY!" She watched in amusement as the three were blasted into nearby buildings at high speeds and were stuck in the indents in the wall that they made. "Now then..." She laughed as she sent a pulse of energy through the anti-crystal and a wave of energy covered the area.

"This..." Vert groaned as she fell to her knees in pain. "What is this? This is worse than before."

"Because I cut you off from your Sharicite." Orange Heart chuckled as she snapped her fingers and all the CPUs, save for Nepgear, found themselves face-first on the ground as it felt like gravity increased hundreds of times over at that moment.

"Sis..." Uni groaned, gasping in pain, unable to move. "I... It hurts..."

"Uni..." Noire tried to move, but found herself unable to budge. "Uni... Hang in there." She tried to reach for her sister but she couldn't move her arms.

Orange Heart chuckled and floated over to Nepgear and slapped her cheeks lightly. "You should say goodbye to your sister..." She sneered at Nepgear, who turned her head and watched as Jupiter twisted and cried out in pain.

"Jupiter!" Nepgear tried to move, but found herself bound to the wall. "Let me go! PLEASE!"

"No." Orange Heart chuckled as she saw not only Jupiter, but also the White Sisters squirming and thrashing in pain. And while the Black Sister was doing better, she was in a similar state as Jupiter. "Soon they'll be dead, but don't worry..." Holding up her right hand, she snapped her fingers again and the sky seemed to tear itself apart and it started to look like a golf ball as black energy crackled in the sky. "Soon everyone will be dead and you'll join them."

"You're... Insane..." Nepgear gasped out, agony on her face, being so close to the Anti-Crystal was far more painful than she had imagined it would be.

Orange Heart smirked at her. "I'm already dead, this body is artificial, so I have no clue how long it will last, but I might as well make sure that I get my revenge first. My Zero Dimension Multi-Blast will destroy every living thing in Gamindustri."

"S...is..." Jupiter groaned and jerked in place. "Hurts.. Help..."

Orange Heart laughed as her eyes started to glow in sheer delight. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" She continued to laugh even while Nepgear glared at her with eyes promising pain and death. "When I drop this and snap my fingers, this whole world is dead! Now... FIRUGH!"

Suddenly everything stopped, the sky returned to normal as the holes in the sky disappeared and the color of the sky returned to being blue and the CPUs found themselves able to move as the pain they were feeling had suddenly stopped. Orange Heart's eyes were wide in shock as she looked down, a horrified look on her face as a purple blade was sticking out from between her breasts.

"Wh..a..t?" Orange Heart coughed painfully as blood came bubbling out of her mouth..

"You are a real pain." Anonydeath's voice was heard behind her as light seemed to bend and flex from behind Orange Heart, revealing him.

"Anonydeath?!" Nepgear gasped and looked to the side where she saw another Anonydeath was embedded in the wall...

...Or rather was embedded in the wall as that Anonydeath shattered into particles of light.

"Planeptune holographic technology, Honey!" Anonydeath said happily. "As soon as I saw miss crazy here, I activated my holographic emitters to create a hard light version of myself while I activated camouflage to go invisible. I remember that little Rei had this nasty sword, so I went to grab it, and since it scares the other CPUs, I figured it harms CPUs."

"It doesn't hurt CPUs..." Nepgear said as she struggled to get off the wall. "It kills them, it drinks their souls and destroys the bodies." She slid to the ground, staggering as she tried to steady herself while leaning on the wall, slumping and trembling while panting softly.

Orange Heart's eyes widened in horror. "N...No... What are..."

"The sword was used by another version of me," Nepgear said as she looked at Orange Heart, "to kill every other CPU in Gamindustri before using it to kill something called the Deity of Sin, then that version of me used the sword on herself to end her own life."

"Sis?" Jupiter looked at her in shock. "What do you mean? How do you know?"

"Because, Croire told me most of it when she gave me that sword, and it turns out that the sword is sentient." Nepgear answered, "and it told me the rest of the story. I put a seal on it to shut it up and keep it from influencing me. However..." She took a deep breath. "Gehaburn, free yourself and END that CPU's life!"

Both Orange Heart and Anonydeath could have sworn they heard a chilling laughter in their heads as the blade started to glow purple.

"N...NGAAAAAH!" Orange Heart screamed as her body turned black and disappeared into black mist and everyone watched as the mist was absorbed into Gehaburn.

The Anti-Crystal fell to the ground with a clang and bounced a couple of times before settling next to Anonydeath's feet.

A moment later and the crystal was shattered under Anonydeath's foot. "Sorry, Honey, I know I should have asked first, but I don't want you getting hurt by it again."

"That's fine." Nepgear answered as she looked at everyone and sighed. "Can I have my sword back now?" She asked and held her hand out. After Anonydeath gave it back to her, she glared at the blade. "No, I am NOT going to let you run wild. Shut up. No, I don't care that you saved my life, you're still an evil blade. Just be quiet."

"Uh..." Jupiter looked at Anonydeath, who nodded at her.

"The sword is talking to her, I could hear it telling me to kill everyone here."

Nepgear sighed as her hands started to glow. "I don't want to put up with you, you almost made me go insane last time." The sword started to glow white before Nepgear sighed while her breathing increased softly. "There, re-sealed." She put it away into her inventory so that it wouldn't be around anymore and bothering her.

"So..." Vert said, drawing Nepgear's attention. "How worried should we be about..." She trailed off as Nepgear staggered and suddenly toppled over. "Nepgear?!"

"HONEY!?"

"SIS?!"

(-)

Several minutes later...

Histoire looked at Nepgear in worry as the CPU lay in Planeptune's sick bay, her face pale and her breathing shallow. "This is bad."

"What's going on?" Vert asked, worry in her voice. Blanc and Noire were in the room as well, Jupiter was by Nepgear's side squeezing her hand with a look of pure sorrow on her face while Uni, Rom and Ram were near her giving her support. Anonydeath was against the far wall, just watching silently.

"If what I saw was true, then the METEOR backpack was powered by an Anti-Crystal, yes?" Histoire asked Anonydeath, getting a nod from the pink power armor. "She was right next to it while it was powering up to full strength and then she was further exposed to Anti-Crystal energy while being cut off from the Sharicite."

"So her shares are too low?" Noire asked, getting a nod from Histoire. "But Planeptune's shares are so strong, how can..?"

Histoire sighed softly and shook her head. "I can't answer you, but I can confirm that she is dying. Her shares are bleeding out of her." Part of her thought that maybe Orange Heart had done something to Nepgear that would guarantee her death. 'I... Why? I was just starting to make amends with Nepgear, why did this have to happen now?'

Blanc looked troubled as she watched Nepgear laying there, breathing slowly. "...Can we save her?" When Histoire shook her head, she growled. "Dammit! Not again!"

"Actually," Anonydeath spoke up softly, drawing attention to him. "You might be able to. If you can get Honey to agree to it..." He trailed off and pointed at Histoire. "I do believe that Rei mentioned that if all four CPUs are in agreement that they'll have access to all of Histoire's power."

"Sis! Sis!" Jupiter shook Nepgear violently, causing her to groan and crack an eye open. "Say you agree! Say you agree!"

"I... Agree?" Nepgear groaned out painfully and shivered.

"So do I!" Noire and Vert said at the same time.

Blanc growled and grabbed Histoire. "As do I! Now fix her, dammit!"

Suddenly Histoire glowed brightly and Blanc stepped back from the fairy as she looked at Nepgear and floated over to the dying CPU and put a hand on her forehead. "So it has been deemed, so it shall be. Recover now, young CPU."

Nepgear's body glowed and she jerked violently for a moment before the glow faded and her eyes fluttered open slowly. "H...Histoire?" She asked softly as color slowly returned to her body. "What..?"

"SIS!" Jupiter suddenly lunged and hugged Nepgear tightly, crying. "You were dying! But now you're... WAAAAH!"

Nepgear blinked a few times and looked at everyone in the room as she hugged her sister and whispered softly as she held her sobbing sister tightly. "I'm sorry, Jupiter, I'm so, so sorry for worrying you." She looked at the other CPUs and nodded softly. "We have a lot to talk about, don't we?"

* * *

In case you couldn't figure out what the METEOR unit was that Nepgear was using, go watch Gundam SEED, it's that giant backpack that Kira and Athrun have on their Gundams. And yes, Uni is a Gundam fan, check her stats in the manga, it mentions she's watched Gundam so many times that it's off the charts!

Rage of the Gods is Jupiter's EXE drive attack. If you want a BMG for it, play the one from VII when doing EXE attacks.

Anyway, did you really think Nepgear wouldn't have a bunch of stuff that could take out a CPU on hand? And yes, weaponizing the Anti-Crystals, thank goodness Arfoire never had access to that kind of tech in the anime.

Far shorter than the previous two chapters, but it was time to wrap it up.

I really hope that you all enjoyed the final fight. I was VERY worried about how this one was going to go down. I had plotted out several ways this fight could have gone down, but in the end, chose this one.

Also, Nepgear and Gehaburn's conversation is a shout-out to "Candidates in Time" by HistyIsPisty.

Story's almost done. All that's left is the epilogue.

* * *

"Welcome to Nepstation, this is your host Jupiter and with me is..."

"Nepgear. Bringing you the final Nepstation before the end."

"So this is it, huh? I'm kind of sad."

"Enjoying being a main character?"

"Yeah."

"Well, at least you get to be in a complete story."

"Well, sis, do you want to finish it off with a send off?"

"Sure. With the battle over will true peace finally come to Gamindustri? Will I be able to make friends with the other CPUs? What kind of gift do I give Anonydeath? Find out all of this and more in the epilogue."

"...Wait, you give Anny a gift?"

"...Let's just say that he's earned it. Anyway, this is Nepgear..."

"And Jupiter, signing off."


	31. Epilogue

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

Yes, I'm posting the epilogue early. I've really enjoyed the ride people. I hope you have too.

* * *

It was many hours later as the sun began to set when Nepgear and Jupiter stood at the front doors of the Basilicom seeing the other CPUs as they stood outside. "I..." Nepgear began, unsure what to say.

"I'm none too pleased that you were spying on us for so many years." Black Heart said to Nepgear. "But if I was in your position, I would have done the same thing." She had a pensive look on her face.

"The amount of Anti-CPU measures you took also worries me." Green Heart said as she looked at Nepgear. "You said you were going to dismantle them?"

Nepgear nodded at her. "I have no intention of using them ever again. And I don't want to erode any sort of trust that could happen between us from here on out."

"Nepgear..." White Heart walked up to Nepgear and had a pensive look on her face. "I can't undo the damage I did to you or to Planeptune..." She turned to look at her sisters, who were giving her stern looks and she sighed and looked back at Nepgear. "After nearly losing my sisters today... I know how you must have felt for the past ten years. I... I'm so sorry."

"...Sorry can never bring back Neptune." Nepgear said softly and White Heart winced. "But... I... She wouldn't want me to carry on hating you." White Heart gasped in shock. "I love her, I miss her... Nothing can change that, or what you did." Nepgear took a deep breath and held out her hand. "I'm willing to try and fulfill her final request and move forward, as allies if nothing else."

"...That's more than a monster like me deserves." White Heart said as she took Nepgear's hand and shook it. "If there was some way to bring her back, I would, but..." She looked at Histoire, who shook her head. "I truly am sorry."

"I know."

"We need to go." Black Heart said softly. "Nepgear, you said..."

"I'll keep my promise..." Nepgear said to her. "One week from today, I'll officially invite all of you back and announce the end of the Console Wars."

"It's been a long day." Green Heart said tiredly. "I'd like to..."

"Wait!" A voice interrupted Green Heart and she turned to see Compa, who yelled, and IF, who was running up to them. "We can't stay here! We need to get home!"

"What Compa means is that our hotel room got destroyed in that fight." IF answered. "And we have no more clean clothes." As the others laughed, she turned to Nepgear. "Um, you're CPU Lilac Heart, right?"

Nepgear nodded. "Yes, and you're IF, correct?"

IF nodded and bowed to Nepgear quickly and straightened herself before continuing. "Yes, that's right. Um... Thank you SO much for helping me out. I never thought I could walk normally again."

"So why do you have a cane?" Nepgear asked, confused. "You should have no problem walking if you used the regeneration tanks."

"Ah..." IF blushed heavily. "My balance is all off. I kept falling over during rehab."

Green Heart chuckled and floated over to IF and Compa. "I can carry you both home, sure."

Nepgear did something she never thought she would do in her life, she waved at the other CPUs and nodded to them. "I'll see you all in a week... So... Take care." They looked at her in shock, before all of them smiled and flew off for their homes.

Histoire tapped Nepgear on the shoulder. "I have to tell you something in private. Jupiter, please follow as well." She turned and floated into the Basilicom, followed by Jupiter and Nepgear. "As you know, I was created by Rei Ryghts and I have access to a vast majority of her power." She said as she floated backwards while looking at them. "I... Nepgear, I apologize. Now I know why I was like how I was when I was teaching you to become a CPU." Nepgear gave her a confused look. "All the things I said that makes a good CPU... Were things that Rei imparted on me back when she was a good CPU." She blushed at the shocked looks that Nepgear and Jupiter gave her. "Believe it or don't, but Rei was once a very good and steadfast CPU who did all she could for her people. She was taken advantage of by people too many times and she snapped and became what you saw out there."

"...So when you were training me to be a CPU... You were training me to be like Rei?" Nepgear asked, getting a nod from Histoire. "...You know, I don't know why, but I suddenly remember something Arfoire told me ten years ago."

"Huh?" Both Jupiter and Histoire said at the same time.

"That I reminded her of the first True Goddess of Gamindustri... She meant Rei, and then Rei and Uzume told me that I was like them, I was full of hate... And you trained me to be like Rei..." Nepgear had a contemplative look on her face. "...If not for Neptune, I would have ended up like her, wouldn't have I?"

Histoire had a sorrowful look on her face and slowly nodded. "I... I'm afraid so, I knew you were on that path, I... I'm so thankful that Neptune appeared and got you off that path."

"You and me both." Jupiter said and hugged Nepgear tightly. "Don't go evil CPU on me, please?"

"...I won't." Nepgear hugged Jupiter back. "Neptune made sure that I won't ever go back down that path. I don't want her to have anymore regrets."

If nothing else, she wanted her sister's spirit to be able to rest easy.

(-)

In Lowee...

"Blanny!" C-Sha glomped White Heart after she turned back into Blanc. "Rommy! Rammy!" She pulled the White Sisters into the hug and squeezed them tightly as tears fell out of her eyes. "I saw what happened and I was so worried! I wish I had gone with."

"I'm glad you didn't." Blanc said softly and hugged C-Sha back. "I would have been worried about you." She felt C-Sha shuddering and she felt her own tears fall out of her eyes. "I'm so sorry." She whispered to them.

She wasn't sure who she was talking to, but she had the need to say it.

The four of them stayed in the hug for almost twenty minutes when Financier forced them to break it up and get cleaned up for dinner and bed.

As she shuffled off to get cleaned up, Blanc wondered if maybe Financier was like a mother to her as well.

(-)

A couple of hours later...

"Blanc... Blanc..."

Blanc looked up in surprise as she saw Purple Heart. "What?" The two were surrounded by a forest.

"Do you really think that you deserve any sort of happiness?" Purple Heart asked and held up a mirror, showing a scarred, blue-skinned and utterly hideous version of Blanc looking back at the CPU. Blanc's face was full of fear as she trembled. "After what you did, you really..."

*THUMP*

Blanc fell on her butt as a giant Thwamp landed on where Purple Heart was a moment ago. "W...What?"

"Dang it, Blanc!" A voice she hadn't heard in ages yelled at her and she looked up to see Neptune falling down off the Thwamp and landed on the ground before running up to her and poking her in the chest. "Stop feeling so gosh-darn guilty!"

"H...Huh?" Blanc's eyes were wide as she trembled. "n...Neptune?"

"Yeppers!" Neptune smiled at her suddenly. "I'm the Neptune you killed in Celestia ten years ago." The next thing she knew, Blanc was clinging to her and sobbing. "Blanc?"

"Why? Why didn't you fight harder? Why did you let me.. WAAAAAAH!"

Neptune smiled softly and patted Blanc on her back. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to die that day. Between you and Nep Jr., I have so many regrets that I can't move on."

Time seemed to have no meaning for the two as Blanc sobbed while Neptune hugged and held her.

Eventually Blanc pulled back and sniffled while looking at her. "I... I... I miss you... I..." She suddenly grabbed Neptune and kissed her on the lips, shocking the dead CPU.

After the kiss ended, Blanc was red in the face while Neptune giggled softly. "Nep woah..." Neptune was a little woozy. "I'm glad that I don't need air now." She gave Blanc a confused look. "Why'd you kiss me like that though?"

"That was more of an "I'm sorry" kiss than a "I love you kiss", okay?" Blanc smiled softly. "I've been wanting to do that for years."

"Are you sure you want to kiss me though?" Neptune asked and Blanc looked confused until Neptune pointed behind her and she saw C-Sha's sleeping body. "You love her, don't you?"

"But I don't..."

Neptune came up behind Blanc and wrapped her arms around Blanc's midsection and hugged her as she leaned in. "I don't blame you for killing me, Blanc. I want you to stop blaming yourself and stop pushing C-Sha away already." Blanc looked a bit guilty and Neptune sighed before tightening her hug. "Blanc, if you want to help me, I want you to let go of your guilt and be happy with C-Sha." She let go as Blanc turned to look at her and Neptune smiled at her. "Please? If you promise to stop pushing C-Sha away and let her in fully, I can move on without regrets."

Blanc sighed and nodded, smiling softly. "Neptune... Why don't you hate me?"

"Because I always thought of us as friends." Neptune answered her. "No! No being guilty." Neptune shook her head. "Friends forgive each other."

"...But I killed you."

Neptune shrugged. "I knew that was a possibility. Now, you go and do all sorts of lewd and naughty things to C-Sha every night without any guilt in your head. You aren't a monster, you're just Blanny Blanny B."

Blanc twitched as Neptune ran off laughing. "DON'T CALL ME THAT!" She couldn't believe that Neptune would remember that cheesy promotional video she had done so long ago.

After Neptune disappeared, she smiled softly. "Thank you, Neptune..." Closing her eyes, she felt herself return to the world of the living.

(-)

"Ngh..." Blanc groaned and opened her eyes before sitting up and looking at C-Sha and smiling. "Hey, C-Sha..." She shook her bed partner until she woke up.

"Ngh? Blanny?" C-Sha groaned as she rubbed her eyes and sat up, revealing that she slept in her panties as her bare breasts bounced from the movements. "It's two in the morning, what is it?" She was surprised as Blanc kissed her on the lips. "Blanny?"

"I'm sorry, for being so cold to you for so long." Blanc whispered softly. "...Will you let me make it up to you?"

"Of course." C-Sha smiled and hugged Blanc back. "Just not right now, I'm tired."

"Of course." Blanc said and sighed happily as C-Sha guided her back onto the bed where they cuddled against each other while drifting off to sleep in each other's arms. 'Thank you, Neptune.'

(-)

Meanwhile...

Noire looked around in confusion. "Hello?" There was no answer, the area was just a black, jumbled mess.

"Really, hello?" A familiar voice spoke up and Noire spun around to see herself, or rather, Black Heart, glaring at her. "Do you really think you should forgive Nepgear for all the spying on you?"

"Do you blame her?" Noire shot back and Black Heart scoffed.

"You've become weak." Black Heart narrowed her eyes at Noire. "You wouldn't have put up with that back during the Console Wars."

"Yeah, and all that did was get us manipulated by an ancient witch, drove a wedge between Planeptune and our nations, allowed for an ancient CPU to manipulate the people and turn them against us and all of us nearly died!" Noire yelled at Black Heart. "I don't give a crap about that anymore."

"Then you should die."

Noire sighed and her shoulders sagged. "When Uni's ready to take over, I don't plan on living after she becomes Lastation's CPU. I've done too much damage to the world, why should I be there to see it recover from the wars?" She didn't feel like she deserved to live, the only reason she held on was because of Uni and because she knew what would happen to Lastation if she perished too soon. 'Uni's ready though, she could take over tomorrow if she had to.' Maybe it was time for her to go? The world didn't need someone like her in it after all.

"Because you..."

"Oh shut up!" A new voice interrupted Black Heart and both she and Noire turned to see Purple Heart, katana drawn, walking towards them, a stern look on her face. "First of all, Noire, I don't want you killing yourself. Secondly, Black Heart..." She narrowed her eyes at the other CPU, who was looking at her in confusion. "The wars are over."

"You're dead!" Black Heart snapped back at Purple Heart and turned to Noire. "Here! Here's your chance! Use my power and put her down for good."

"But, I..." Noire didn't know what was going on.

"Noire..." Purple Heart said softly. "I want you to know that I never blamed you for your part in killing me ten years ago." Noire's eyes widened in shock. "That's right, I'm the spirit of Purple Heart that died in Celestia."

"But..." Noire fell to her knees and trembled. "Are you here for revenge?"

"Fool!" Black Heart snarled at Noire. "Just use my power! End, GAH!" She cried out as a digital blade of energy slammed into her leg.

"Do shut up." Purple Heart narrowed her eyes as she pointed her index and middle finger at Black Heart before raising her arm into the air. "32 Bit Mega Blade Kebab."

Black Heart stared in horror as the sky was filled with 32 Bit Mega Blades, she looked at Purple Heart, who smirked as she dropped her arm and hundreds of 32 Bit Mega Blades skewered Black Heart from all directions.

"...What's going on?" Noire asked as the attack ended and she trembled as Black Heart turned into a black mist, wondering if that was going to happen to her next. She found herself sinking to her knees as she looked at Purple Heart. "I...If you're here for revenge, go ahead, I deserve to die, by your hand if nothing else." At least she could die without the regrets of killing Purple Heart burdening her down.

"You're so much like Nepgear." Purple Heart said softly as she put her katana away and walked over to Noire before kneeling and pulling the confused and scared CPU into a hug. "That wasn't really your HDD power, Noire, it was your anger and guilt given form."

"I...Is it really you?" Noire asked as she trembled. "This is a dream, right?"

"Yes, but..." Purple Heart closed her eyes and her body shifted as she transformed back into her human form. "I don't want ya to kill yerself." Neptune said as she pulled back from Noire and winked at her.

"Neptune..?" Noire whispered softly as the scenery changed and the two were on a grassy hill overlooking Lastation. "What..?" The sky was dark, but full of stars and the moon was full, casting illumination over the two of them.

Neptune giggled and sat down next to Noire on the grass. "Silly, I'm a ghost!"

"Oh..." Noire said softly and looked down. "I.. Neptune, I..."

"Jeez, don't say everything at once." Neptune giggled at Noire. "I know you're sorry, Noire." Suddenly Noire hugged her again and buried her face into Neptune's chest as she sobbed. "It's okay, let it all out." She gently patted Noire on the back as the black haired CPU cried.

After some time, Noire stopped crying and just rested on Neptune. "I'm so sorry."

"I know." Neptune rubbed Noire's back. "Just promise me that you'll live your life to its fullest and be friends with Nep Jr. for me, okay?" Noire nodded and Neptune smiled. "Good. No more talk of killing yourself. You and Nep Jr. are so darn suicidal." Noire gave her a confused look. "Nep Jr. wanted to kill herself too. I want you to talk to her and give each other support, okay?"

"...Okay." Noire sighed and closed her eyes. "Neptune, I'm sorry... That I didn't become your friend."

"It's okay." Neptune impulsively gave Noire a gentle kiss on the forehead. "I don't hate you, just get some sleep, no more nightmares."

Noire pursed her lips. "Hey, Neptune, can I ask you something?"

"Huh? Sure." Neptune smiled, wondering what was on Noire's mind.

Noire sighed softly. "Why did you come to us and ask us to be your friend right away?"

Neptune was silent for a little while before nodding. "You know that I was alive before you were, right?" Noire nodded at her. "I knew your predecessor personally." Noire's eyes widened in surprise. "I never brought her up because I hated her and Blanc and Vert's predecessors."

Noire was shocked. "You? Hate? What?" She couldn't believe it, from what she remembered of the dead CPU, Neptune didn't have a mean bone in her body, so why would she admit to that?

"They tried to have me assassinated dozens of times." Neptune answered her. "I kind of came into the world after they had established a pecking order of things. They didn't like the upstart idiot CPU screwing things up, so they wanted to eliminate me." She shrugged at Noire. "I don't blame you for what your predecessor tried to do, but I didn't want you to turn out like her, so that's why I did that whole prank war with you, Vert and Blanc."

"Oh..." Noire was tempted to ask about the pair of panties of hers that Neptune had stolen, but thought she was better off not knowing.

"But that wasn't even the reason I hated them." Neptune sighed and looked up, causing Noire to look at her in confusion. "They didn't care about their people that much. You, Vert and Blanc care about your people, none of you would have fought each other or me near a village full of people."

Noire nodded, that was true. "Can't believe we fought for so long."

Neptune nodded and gave Noire a small smile. "Yeah. Though a good chunk of the fighting we did was pretty funny. Like that time you made Blanc have an afro."

Noire suddenly burst out laughing as she remembered that. "Or that time you dyed Vert's hair multiple colors!"

Neptune giggled at her. "Or that time I cut your hair when you were asleep and you spent a long time with short hair."

Noire gave her an annoyed look. "That took forever to regrow. But I'll give you credit, at least it was stylish." She then had a savage grin on her face. "How about that time when I had that alchemist with the bunny outfit turn you into a boy for six months?"

Neptune groaned in dismay. "I'll have you know that it was so weird to have dangly parts in between my legs." It had taken her a week to learn how to walk and sit without hurting herself when she was trapped as a boy for that time.

Noire suddenly blushed as she remembered something important. "But you were a hunk in your HDD form for that time."

Neptune suddenly had a grin on her face. "Why, Noire, you weren't doing anything lewd when you were alone during that time, were you?" Her grin died as Noire's blush increased and she poked her fingers together. "...What?"

"...What if I told you yes?"

Neptune face-faulted as Noire started to laugh. "Curses! My teasing was turned against me!" She joined Noire in laughing after a bit. "Feeling better?"

"Yeah." Noire smiled and closed her eyes as she faded from her dreamscape. "Neptune, thank you. And, I would have loved to have been your friend."

Neptune smiled at where Noire was just a moment ago. "I know, I wanted to be your friend too."

(-)

Meanwhile...

"Where am I?" Vert asked as she looked around in confusion. All around her was dark mist and shadows.

"Heya, Vert!" A voice from the mists spoke up and Vert's eyes widened in shock and she put her hands over her mouth as Neptune walked forward and the scenery changed to her living room.

"Neptune, but..."

"Don't worry, you're not having a nightmare." Neptune kept smiling at her. "I'm Neptune, the CPU you speared in Celestia."

"...Are you here for revenge or to condemn me?"

"Nah!" Neptune just grinned at her. "Imma gunna do something I've wanted to do since I first saw you." The next thing Vert knew, Neptune was hugging her and burying her face into the busty CPU's chest. "Mmmm! They're really comfy, just like I always thought they'd be."

"Um..." Vert blinked in surprise as Neptune let go of the hug and stepped away. "It's not often the dead want to smother themselves in my boobs."

Neptune laughed at Vert. "I know."

"I..." Vert sighed and sat down. "I was horrible. It's probably why I don't have a sister, huh?" She looked up as Neptune grabbed her hands and squeezed them.

"You weren't any worse than I was." Neptune said to her, a gentle look on her face as she smiled. "I dunno if I can influence anything anymore, but if I can, I'll see about making you get a little sister, okay?"

"You'd do that for your murderer?"

Neptune hugged Vert. "We're friends, so of course I would." She smiled as Vert hugged her back. "But don't get your hopes up, I don't know what I can do when I have to go."

Vert blinked as Neptune started to giggle uncontrollably. "What's wrong?" She asked as she pulled away from the hug.

"Oh, I dunno why, but for some reason..." Neptune had a lewd look on her face as she giggled. "I just imagined you wanting a sister sandwich of me and Nep Jr. and couldn't help but imagine how lewd that would be."

Vert blushed at that. "That would be really lewd, maybe in another life that could have happened."

Neptune laughed at that. "Maybe." She stopped laughing and sighed softly. "So, no more being sad, okay? I want you to be happy. Look after your people and fix your problems, okay?"

Vert nodded. "I promise. There's a lot to clean up after the Anti-CPU faction made a mess of things."

Neptune cupped Vert's cheeks, causing the blonde CPU to blush softly. "Please? I want you to live, okay?"

Vert nodded and pulled Neptune into another hug. "I wish I could undo what happened. If we had just listened to you and became friends back then..."

"I know." Neptune said softly. "Just be friends with Nep Jr. for me, okay?" Vert nodded. "Because I don't want anymore regrets."

"Sure."

Neptune smiled before giggling. "Hey, Vert, don't smother my younger sisters too much, okay?" Vert giggled back as she found her body relaxing. "No more guilt, no more sadness, you be a good CPU and walk forward with your head held high, okay?"

"Yeah, I will." Vert smiled as she found herself drifting into a peaceful slumber where her dreams wouldn't bother her anymore.

Neptune smiled and sighed. "Two more stops."

(-)

Jupiter looked around in confusion. "Didn't I just fall asleep next to sis? Why am I in the living room?"

"Heya, Nep the Third!"

Jupiter's eyes widened as she turned to see Neptune, the small Neptune, wearing a white hoodie and leaning against the wall. "...Neptune? But... What?"

"To answer simply, I'm the ghost of Neptune." Neptune answered her, causing Jupiter to nod. "It's so good to finally meet you."

"You're sis's big sis, huh?" Jupiter had a look of trepidation on her face. "So why are you here?"

"To make sure that you're okay." Neptune smiled as she pushed off from the wall and walked over to Jupiter. "And to ask you a favor."

"A favor?" Jupiter asked as Neptune grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze.

"I can't look after our sister anymore. I want you to keep being there for her." Neptune had a sad look on her face. "I wish I could do more, but..."

"Is that all?" Jupiter smiled and hugged her big sister. "I promise you, Neptune, I won't let anything bad happen to Nepgear if I can help it."

Neptune hugged Jupiter back and smiled as tears leaked out of her eyes. "Thank you. Because seeing Nepgear laying there dying almost gave me a heart attack. Don't let her get like that again."

"I promise, big sis."

Neptune smiled as she continued to hug Jupiter. "Thank you." She felt so much lighter than she had in years. "I'm sorry that I couldn't speak to you until now. I was so worried about Nep Jr. that I couldn't..."

"It's okay." Jupiter said as she let go of the hug. "I understand. I'll do my best, both for sis and for Planeptune."

Neptune smiled happily. "That makes me feel good. Why don't you get some more sleep, okay? When it's your time to come over, I want you to promise me that you'll have lots of good stories for me."

"Of course." Jupiter said as she watched Neptune disappear in her mind.

(-)

Nepgear sighed as she looked around. She was in a clearing surrounded by trees. "This was where Neptune took me to go on a picnic right after I was born."

"I'm glad you remembered, Nepgear." Neptune said and Nepgear gasped as her sister walked into the clearing, looking serene and somewhat transparent. "I... Nepgear, I can't be here anymore."

"Neptune..." Nepgear walked over to her sister and hugged her. "I... I don't want you to go."

"Don't worry." Neptune smiled as she hugged Nepgear back. "Like you said, I'm in your heart and on your back. I'll live on as part of you forever."

The two held the hug for some time before slowly breaking it off.

"Neptune..." Nepgear began, unsure of what to say.

"Hey!" Neptune smiled at her sister. "Don't be sad. If you ever miss me, just have Histy call one of the other Mes and talk to them." Nepgear's eyes widened as she realized that she could do that. "So no more being sad, I want you to work on your smile too!"

Nepgear nodded as she watched Neptune slowly becoming more and more transparent. "It's time then?"

"Yeah." Neptune nodded. "My regrets are being lifted, I just wanted to say goodbye." She grinned as an idea came to her. "Oh! And, Nepgear?"

"Huh?"

"Stop being so mean to Anonydeath, okay? After all, he is your boyfriend, isn't he?"

Nepgear's face turned red. "He is NOT my boyfriend!"

"Mwahahahahahahaha!" Neptune fell on her butt and kicked her legs in the air while clutching her stomach. "My sister's a tsundere!"

As Neptune started to fade away, Nepgear found herself crying again. "Neptune... I love you... I'll miss you."

"I know." Neptune nodded at her. "Take care, Nepgear."

"I will, goodbye Neptune and thank you!" Nepgear called out as Neptune faded and disappeared for good.

"I'll always... Be... Watching... Over you... I... Love... You... Nepgear." Neptune's voice echoed in her mind before fading away with her spirit.

"Neptune." Nepgear trembled and nodded. "I love you too. But don't worry, I'm not alone..." She closed her eyes as she faded away from her dream world.

"Not anymore."

(-)

Nepgear woke up and noticed that it was still early, she had an hour before she normally woke up. Looking to her side, she felt herself trying to smile as she saw Jupiter sleeping next to her, with the Neptune and Purple Heart plushies in her arms.

Nepgear closed her eyes and pulled Jupiter into a hug. "I love you, Jupiter."

"I love you too, sis." Jupiter answered and shifted so she could hug her sister. "Even though you do some dumb things."

Nepgear snorted in amusement. "Says that naughty girl who left my country without my permission." Her voice wasn't angry or accusatory, some people would actually say it was almost playful.

Jupiter giggled while Nepgear tried to smile. It was hard, but she kept working on it.

The two drifted back to sleep, cuddling against each other. It wasn't until Histoire came to get them that they woke up...

...Four hours later.

(-)

B-Sha sighed as she came into work. Her shoulders were slumped and her feet were almost dragging behind her. "Lei-Lei..." She said softly. She knew it wasn't the woman's real name, she knew that the woman had been using her and Nepgear, she knew that the woman had nearly destroyed the world, she knew all of that...

"I still thought of her as a friend."

"B-Sha." She heard Nepgear's voice and she looked up to see her CPU looking at her. "Will you follow me to my office?"

B-Sha gulped and hoped that she wasn't in trouble. As she followed Nepgear, she tried to say something, but found that she couldn't.

When they got into Nepgear's office, B-Sha blinked in surprise as she saw Histoire and the recently revealed Jupiter. "Um... Lady Nepgear, what is..?"

Nepgear turned to face her. "You tried to protect my sister against someone I know you considered a friend." B-Sha looked away, shame on her face. "I don't blame you, B-Sha. You had no clue who she was."

"So, why am I..?"

Histoire interrupted her. "We were wondering, would you like to take a week off to get your affairs in order?"

"Am I being fired?" B-Sha asked as she looked at them, trembling and trying to keep herself from crying.

"No." Nepgear shook her head. "You know that I lost my elder sister ten years ago," B-Sha nodded, "so I want you to have time so that you can grieve over the loss of your friend." B-Sha gasped in shock as Nepgear slowly raised her lips up as she tried to smile. "I'm not going to make you work when you're grieving."

"Thank you, Lady Nepgear, thank you." B-Sha bowed to her CPU.

"You don't need to bow." Nepgear said. "You tried to save my sister, it's the least I can do for you. Well, no, there is one more thing I can do..." She nodded to Jupiter, who walked over to B-Sha and handed her a piece of paper.

Taking it, B-Sha's eyes widened. "This is..."

"Anyone who works for me and has the guts to face down a CPU," Nepgear said softly, "deserves a big fat bonus, a raise and a promotion, don't you two think so?"

"I agree." Histoire said while Jupiter nodded. "Plus you've worked for us tirelessly, B-Sha. So, please, go home, take time to yourself and just relax, okay?"

B-Sha smiled, tears streaming down her face. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

(-)

A week later...

Lilac Heart, wearing a light pink dress, looked at Black Heart, who was wearing a black dress, White Heart, who had a white and blue dress on, and Green Heart, who had a green dress on, as well as her sister and the other CPU Candidates, all of whom were dressed in casual dresses while in HDD. "How have things been in your nations?"

"Slowly getting better." Black Heart answered her. "I was worried that the Anti-CPU faction would cause more problems."

"But it seems that since our battle against the ancient CPUs was broadcast across Gamindustri and with how close the world came to ending," Green Heart continued, "well, suffice to say, the Anti-CPU faction basically fell apart, most of the members have apologized publicly and those that haven't are working hard to make things better for everyone."

"Plus thanks to your hacker friend," White Heart continued after Green Heart spoke up, "information about the crimes of the leaders has come pouring out and I'm a bit surprised, but that brat Abnes has been putting effort into helping improve our image on her channel."

"I think the fact that she realized that she was partially responsible for nearly destroying the world has changed her outlook on life." Green Heart replied. "Of course, she's not the only one, that robot, Copypaste, has been repaired and he's been a big help in repairing the damage to Leanbox."

"Still, it's going to take some time to fully recover." Black Heart sighed softly.

"Um, Miss Lilac Heart..." Rom raised her hand. "What did you do with all the Anti-CPU stuff you had?"

"I've spent the past week dismantling and destroying several of the systems and weapons I had built up." Lilac Heart answered. "There's still quite a bit to deal with, but it will be done as soon as possible."

"Um, Lilac Heart..?" Uni didn't feel right calling Nepgear by her human name, she didn't know the CPU well enough to do so. "What about that Nepstarter system you said you developed awhile ago? Didn't you say that it massively magnified your local shares?"

Lilac Heart nodded at her. "I have no qualms about sharing it with your nations." The other CPUs looked at her in shock and she sighed. "I can't very well show that I'm sincere if I don't do something like this."

"I still don't understand how it works." Ram muttered and Lilac Heart let out a noise of amusement. "What?"

"To put it simply, it's a system that allows people to use shares for everything from the most mundane to more esoteric things." Lilac Heart explained. "As such, people see the use and benefits of using shares personally and not just as an abstract "our faith helps the CPUs out" and they put more faith into the CPUs as a result."

"And that's why Planeptune's done so well, huh?" Uni asked, marveling at the idea. "But what if they start to lose faith, won't that be a problem?"

"Yes," Lilac Heart nodded. "I do hope it doesn't happen anytime soon, but who knows what the future holds? I certainly never thought that I'd ever have you or your sister in my nation peacefully."

Black Heart snorted, an amused look on her face. "Probably as prisoners of war or something." Lilac Heart, for her part, had a sheepish look on her face as she nodded. "It's fine, I'm not upset at you."

"So what about your hacker friend?" White Heart asked her. "Still using him to spy on us?"

Lilac Heart shook her head, her cheeks were slightly red, much to everyone's confusion. "No. I, um, relieved him of his duties in that regard. He's been helping me take care of my Anti-CPU weapons and systems." She thought back to that morning, when she had gone to see Anonydeath.

*Flashback*

"Honey?" Anonydeath asked Nepgear. "Are you okay?"

"You know, after we're done here, I'll have to fire you." Nepgear said to him and he nodded, knowing that. "I have something for you though." She held up a memory stick. "Think of this as a bonus for putting up with me for the past seven years."

"Huh, it has been seven years today, hasn't it?" Anonydeath took the memory stick from her. "So what will you do now?"

"I have to get ready for today's meeting with the other CPUs." Nepgear fidgeted softly before grabbing Anonydeath and pulling him into a hug, shocking the hacker. "Thank you so much, Anonydeath."

"Oh Honey..." Anonydeath hugged her back. "Does this mean..?"

"I'm not ready for any sort of romantic relationship, Anonydeath." Nepgear said softly. "I'm relearning how to feel emotions other than negative ones and interact with people." She let go of the hug. "...Maybe one day though."

"HONEY!" Anonydeath gasped in shock.

"Anyway, I need to go, enjoy your gift." Nepgear walked off, waving.

"Huh..." Anonydeath looked at the memory stick and stuck it into his computer. "Just what is this? ...Pictures?" Opening up the files, his eyes bugged out behind his face plate.

They were pictures of Nepgear...

...In her bathroom...

...wearing just a towel as she took selfies with a hovering drone camera.

And in each picture, the towel slowly slid off before revealing Nepgear's nude body to him. There were images of her lifting her breasts up and giving him her best impression of a coy look. He almost fell over as she turned around and stuck her butt out at him before bending over, one hand on her butt-cheek and squeezing it, while she exposed everything to the camera while looking over her shoulder at the camera, her face flushed while there was a caption on the bottom of the image.

"Do you still think Noire's butt is better than mine?"

*End Flashback*

"Why did I do that?" Lilac Heart asked herself softly, her face bright red while everyone looked at her in confusion.

"Do what?" Jupiter asked.

"...Don't worry about it." Lilac Heart answered her and took a deep breath to calm down. "Shall we go?"

The others all nodded.

(-)

As she walked out onto the platform, Lilac Heart took a deep breath and began to speak. "Hear me, everyone who makes Planeptune and Gamindustri your home." She knew the world was watching, so she continued to speak as members of the Basilicom lifted flags while she walked. "I am Lilac Heart, CPU of Planeptune and today I wish to make two major announcements." She turned and gestured to Jupiter. "The first is that I wish to officially announce my younger sister, my CPU Candidate, Jupiter, to the world."

Jupiter waved nervously to the camera and crowds.

After a few minutes, Lilac Heart continued to speak as Green Heart, Black Heart, White Heart and their sisters came out behind her. "The next thing that I would like to announce is that, I, CPU Lilac Heart of Planeptune, officially recognize the end of the Console Wars."

"I, CPU Black Heart of Lastation, recognize Planeptune's official stance."

"I, CPU Green Heart of Leanbox, also recognize Planeptune's official stance."

"And I, CPU White Heart of Lowee, also recognize Planeptune's official stance."

"It was the wish of my predecessor, CPU Purple Heart of Planeptune," Lilac Heart continued, "that the wars end and our nations could become friends. While it took some time for me to fulfill her dream, I stand before you all today announcing that her dream has come to fruition. I hope that the future is one of peace and prosperity for years to come."

End Epilogue

Achievement Unlocked: Path to Recovery

Normal Ending Acquired

Unlock True Ending?

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Yes/+No

+Yes/No

True Ending Unlocked

Activate BGM: Hyperdimension Neptunia The Animation - Neptune Sagashite

Twenty minutes later...

As they walked back into the Basilicom, Lilac Heart sighed as she and the rest of the CPUs turned back into their human forms. "Neptune, I fulfilled your final request." She whispered softly. She knew it wasn't the ending, but just the beginning and she still needed help in a lot of ways.

Vert put her hand on Nepgear's shoulder and squeezed. "I'm sure that Neptune would be pleased."

"Yer darn tootin' I'm pleased!" A familiar voice had all the CPUs looking up in shock as Neptune stood in the hallway in front of them, grinning and smiling. "Hiya, Vert! Noire! Blanc! Nep Jr.!" She waved happily.

"Neptune?" Nepgear stared in shock, her eyes wide and her hand over her mouth as she looked at Neptune in surprise. "But... How?"

"Hee hee! I put in extra work so Histy wouldn't get mad at me for taking a quick trip to come see ya, Nep Jr.!"

"Yoo hoo!" Neptune's voice was heard as someone who Nepgear didn't expect to see popped her head out from behind a door and smiling at her. "Tiny Me was really concerned about you, little sis, so I brought her to come see you."

Behind her, Croire rolled her eyes and waved at Nepgear.

Before anyone could say anything more, Blanc ran up and tackled Neptune to the ground and was hugging her tightly.

"Boy, that looks familiar." Neptune chuckled as she looked at her smaller self getting dogpiled on by Vert and Noire as well.

"I'm confused." Rom looked at Jupiter, who was smiling and sniffling. "Miss Jupiter?"

"I'll explain later, but those two... They're both my big sister, Neptune."

Uni didn't know what to think, but she saw the absolutely ecstatic expressions on her sister, Blanc and Vert's faces as they hugged the smaller Neptune and decided she didn't care, her sister had never been that happy ever as long as Uni had known her.

"Hey!" The bigger Neptune smiled at Nepgear. "You're smiling!" It wasn't that big, but it was way better than what she had before.

"I've been practicing." Nepgear said as she looked at the Neptunes.

The day got seemingly brighter just from them being there.

"Hang on, I want to hug her too!" Nepgear called out and ran for the dogpile, "she my sister after all!"

The others in the room started to laugh.

It was one of the happiest day in all of their lives after all.

Achievement Unlocked: True Ending Viewed

Shadows of the Heart End

* * *

Let me address this here. No, I did not get tired of writing this. I enjoyed writing the story, but I didn't want to drag the story out longer than it needed to be and risk turning it into something that wasn't fun to read nor write. After all, how many series have you seen that got a sequel or continuation and you went "yeah!" at first, but then were like "this should not have been made" when you got to the end of it?

If I do any sort of continuation of this, it'll be a one-shot story. But don't hold me to that. If I do write it, I'll post it on this site. If not, well, then that's the end of the story.

Just so everyone knows, the "A Nep on the Bend" from my one-shots was inspired by the epilogue, as was the 4th Interlude.

If you remember in VII, Uni mentioned that K-Sha acted like a dutiful wife seeing her husband off to war when Noire had to leave at one point. Well, C-Sha fits the bill for this one, huh? Wait, I hope Blanc doesn't take this to mean I think of her as a guy. XD

Neptune being alive before the others and knowing Vert, Noire and Blanc's predecessors is a reference to how Sega seemingly always rushed their consoles out before they were fully ready, come to think of it, that also works for Nepgear being forced into her role as CPU. Neptune telling Noire that their predecessors weren't always nice to the citizens is a reference to how Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have done serious anti-consumer practices either through overzealous copyright actions (Nintendo), censorship (Sony, Nintendo), or DRM (Microsoft) at one point or another.

Neptune's spirit being able to move on after her regrets were lifted, as well as how she went out, is a direct shout out to "Omegadimension Neptunia: The New Generation" by megaswifter21.

The Nepstarter program that Nepgear explains here was actually an idea that was given to me by Toraneko, I mentioned it in the interlude where Nepgear and Anonydeath first met, but never found a good chance to explain it until now.

I'm happy that I was able to finish this, even happier that so many of you enjoyed this story.

I'll see you all in the future.

End BGM: Hyperdimension Neptunia The Animation - Neptune Sagashite


End file.
